Get Us Outta Here!
by Kat-the-Echidna
Summary: Forget your everyday haunted house story. Forget that cliché where a bunch of friends try to survive a full night of horror thanks to vengeful ghosts. Try surviving a night with your RIVALS with a house full of PLAYFUL ghosts. Doesn't that sound lovely?
1. 1

**Author Notes:** Something that came off of the top of my head. I hope it's good! ^^;

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><p><strong>Clichés Are Overrated<strong>

Do you remember those evenings when you're so bored and nothing on the television, so you decide to watch some cheesy horror flick where a bunch of brave but stupid kids go into a haunted house for the rest of the night? Or have you ever read those books where the hero has to survive the wrath of a bunch of confused spirits who are bent on causing any kind of bodily harm to anyone who enters their territory? Yeah, I think everyone's had one of those nights. It's always the same; a bunch of kids go into an old, abandoned house where rumors say it's haunted. You have the skeptical one, the scary one, the cool one and that one guy who gets killed off first. And the ghosts are always evil, accept for that one who wants to cross over. Same ol' story, same ol' plot, blah blah blah...Just a big cliché all together.

I think they knew that already, so why were they watching a cheesy 80's flick about ghosts? They had no idea, but it was after 6 on Saturday...they had nothing else better to do. There were three of them all together (it's going to be four very soon); each of them from very different ends of society. One of them is a cocky bastard who thinks he can do everything better than everyone else, the other was this emo/goth guy who acted like he didn't care about anything at all and never smiled, the guy who's appearing soon is just an all around jackass, and the last one just needs more love because, even though he's naive, he's a good guy.

A hedgehog with smooth, cobalt blue fur, peach skin and shining green eyes yawned as another horrified scream came from the television. Sitting to his right on the same couch with him was a silvery hedgehog with a magnificent crown of quills going upwards, along with two big one going down his back with chest four and golden eyes started to flick his popcorn kernels at the cobalt hedgie next to him. The last hedgehog was a mysterious dark ebony, with piercing red eyes, red stripes, and once again, chest fur. He looked like he was about to fall asleep, leaning on his hand with his eyes halfway closed, but he managed to look over to see the silvery one flicking popcorn kernels at the blue one. Because, let's face it, seeing flying popcorn seeds bounce off the cobalt one's ear repeatedly was mildly entertaining. Eventually, the silvery one ran out of popcorn kernels and sighed heavily.

"Can we PLEASE watch something else?" he practically begged.

"There's nothing else on..." the cobalt one yawned. The ebony one squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his temples.

"I swear to Chaos," he muttered "if that girl screams one more time..." The silvery one sighed again before he took the remote from the coffee table and began to surf through the channels aimlessly.

"Give it up, Silver."

"Up yours, Sonic."

"Shadow, can you get me a soda?"

"Get your lazy ass up and get it yourself."

"He should be called the "Laziest Thing Alive" instead of the fastest..." Usually, this would have turned into some sort of argument where each insult would not have been related to what started the argument in the first place. But today, they just didn't give a damn. Shadow, Silver and Sonic have been living in a two floored complex in Station Square ever since certain "accidents" occurred that left all three (or four) hedgehogs homeless. They were just renting the place out until they could afford their own houses. It's been four months, and they were still trying to adjust to living under the same roof. Shadow was the main one paying the rent, Silver was responsible for groceries, Sonic was trying to find some sort of job, and the other one was just taking up space to tell the truth, getting most of his money from the government.

Eventually, Sonic sighed as he got up for the couch and dragged himself into the kitchen to find whatever he could to put in his mouth for the time being. Shadow deduced that reading would help him recover any lost brain cells, so he picked up the recent newspaper he received earlier and began to read. Silver had nothing else better to do, so he kept flipping through the channels.

Seconds later, a cabinet could be heard closing, and then the sound of what sounded like paper being ripped, followed by what could sound like pebbles hitting the floor, and then an agitated "DAMMIT!" coming from the kitchen. Shadow (now wearing reading glasses) didn't even flinch to this; it was practically a normal thing around here. Whenever Sonic got bored, he would go into the kitchen to find something to eat, and 99.8% of the time, he would waste something.

"What did you spill this time?" Shadow called, reading over a crossword puzzle and contemplating if he should attempt it or not.

"I really wanted to eat those Goldfish..." Sonic said, mostly to himself. Silver suddenly perked up and finally averted his eyes from the television.

"Were they flavor blasted?" he asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Dammit Sonic! I was saving those!"

"Calm down. I'll buy you some more." Silver muttered something under his breath as Sonic left the kitchen for a brief moment to get the broom from the linen closet. Shadow finally decided to do the crossword puzzle just to pass time. Silver decided to watch "How It's Made" on the Science channel, and Sonic was busy cleaning up those flavor blasted Goldfish.

A few more moments passed-not really sure how much time had passed exactly-before there was a knock at the door, followed by someone going "'Ey! Three Stooges! Open up!" All three hedgehogs moaned. That could only be one person...

See, even though it was a two floor complex, it was only Shadow, Silver and Sonic who lived on the first floor. They gave the second floor to the jackass just to fill in the empty space, even though he rarely paid his rent until he was just second away from being kicked out of the place.

"Should we just leave him out there?" Silver asked, already knowing the answer.

"Might as well let him in," Sonic said from the kitchen. "If we don't, he's gonna pound on that door for an hour, and then someone's gonna call either the landlord or the police, like last time."

"I'll let him in," Shadow sighed as he took off his glasses, placed his newspaper down and got up to go to the door. "But if he tries anything stupid, I'm blowing his brains out." Shadow had to undo a few locks (they upped the security a bit ever since they were robbed when they first moved in) before the door opened. Standing on the other side was a peridot green hedgehog with two scars on his chest, a scar on his eye, tattered ears, unnaturally sharp teeth and icy blue eyes. He wore his favorite black leather jacket with flames on the sleeves, red sunglasses rested on top of his head, black fingerless studded biker gloves, and green and black boots. He was wearing black jeans with some holes in them, and even though he was wearing a belt, his pants were sagging off of his waist a bit, revealing his boxers underneath (which were black). In fact, that's how all four of them wore their pants. They all sagged for whatever reason, but Silver was the only one out of the four whose pants were ALMOST perfectly up on him. But that was irrelevant.

Shadow had to keep himself from scowling at the peridot one, even if he was scowling at him.

"What is it, Scourge?" Shadow asked with annoyance in his voice.

"We're broke so get lost!" Sonic randomly shouted from the kitchen, which made the peridot hedgehog raise his eyebrow.

"I ain't here for money," he said, almost too coolly.

"Good. Now beat it." Shadow attempted to close the door, but Scourge was very quick and managed to stick his foot into the doorway just before the door closed. He forced the door open, making the large piece of wood get out of Shadow's grasp.

"Look," he sneered "I don't care if ya don't like me, but I'm gonna get a word in whether you like it or not."

"Then say what you're gonna say and get lost!" Silver said. Scourge made a face before he crossed his arms and leaned on the doorframe.

"Well then, I'll just be quick. Did'ja hear 'bout the auction goin' on down on Palmer Street?"

"What auction?" Shadow asked, a bit curious. A smirk suddenly appeared on Scourge's lips.

"So ya didn't. That's a shame."

"What auction?" Sonic asked, but with more interest than Shadow.

"They're sellin' this tight crib down there. The place is worth millions since it belonged to that old rich guy, but I heard that they're selling it for 4600 rings, possibly more or less." Sonic, Shadow and Silver were standing at the doorway now, ears perked up.

"You mean old man Gordon's place?" Silver said. "That guy had trillions! Why are they just giving his house away! Shouldn't his heir get the house?" Scourge just shrugged.

"It's on the news," he said. "They said that even his kids want to house, and his oldest daughter was the one who put it up for sale. Now Palmer Street is crowded with suckers tryin' to buy the place. The reason I came down here to tell ya was because the current auction price that's stickin' is 4600 hundred rings, but it might be goin' lower. Thing is, the auction has been going on for more than two weeks now, and they haven't sold the house yet, even with those low prices." Shadow rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"We have just enough to buy the place," he mused. "But that's if we combine all of our rings that's in the bank right now."

"But if the price is going lower," Sonic trailed "then we could get it without emptying our wallets completely!"

"The auction ends at 7," Scourge went on, and then he looked at his watch (which wasn't there before, mind you). "Aaaannnd...it's 6:50 right now."

**. . .**

The fact that all four hedgehogs were the fastest things alive meant that they could reach the auction at 6:51, and that's no boast. Sonic and Scourge could have gotten there in no time flat just by using their feet, and Shadow and Silver could have just Chaos Controlled there and instantly teleport to their destination. Except, there was only one problem...

None of them knew where they were going.

Sure they knew about old man Gordon and his luxurious mansion on Palmer Street; he's been living there for more that 70 years after he rebuilt the place from the ground up. However, Palmer Street was like a maze; there were so many tall business buildings, luxurious apartments and other buildings that made the place seem like a labyrinth. Finding a lil' ol' mansion wouldn't be as easy as it sounded. To be honest, the four of them looked like four trapped mice desperately trying to find a piece of cheese in the area. Silver suggested the most logical and smartest thing as to ask for directions, but Scourge told him to shut it because he knew that way.

But he didn't. Neither of them did. But they had too much pride to ask someone for directions, and that was just sad.

Silver eventually said screw them and asked a mongoose with his girlfriend where the place was, and he pointed him in the right direction. Silver then rounded up his clueless brethren and led them to the right place. But by the time they got there, it was 7:30...They've been running around the city for almost an hour, relying on someone who magically gains wrist-watches from thin air.

"Great. This is just great," Sonic growled once they gotten to the right place, only to see the area deserted with an empty podium and litter scattered across the grass. "We're almost an hour late and we missed the auction!"

"Calm down," Scourge said casually. "They'll be back tomorrow. The place hasn't been sold yet. The sign's still up."

"This was a waste of time," Shadow sighed.

"Not necessarily..." Scourge almost strolled over to the large iron gate and inspected the large chain and lock keeping outsiders out. The mansion that lied just a few yards ahead was a sight to be seen. Though most of the house were covered with pretty green vines, you could see the pieces of gold decorating around the windows and door. There were fountains in the front yard, and sculptures made from bushes in the shapes of various animals were lined along the bricked path leading up to the mansion. The mansion itself looked like it had six floors; you could house your whole extended family in it from the looks of it! He smirked to himself before he got a firm grip on the bars and began to climb up the gate.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? !" The other three ran up to the gate and attempted to pull Scourge back down, but the peridot menace kicked their hands away.

"Dude, you could be arrested for trespassing! And they'll lock you up for a long time since this is old man Gordon's place!" Silver cried.

"I ain't afraid of the slammer anymore," Scourge grunted, swiftly climbing up the gate. "'Sides, I wanna find out why they're just givin' this place away for a few hundred rings." The three hedgehogs on the ground exchanged glances. Scourge _did_ have a valid point. Gordon had way more than enough money in his bank that could last him several life times. But with a place this valuable, it was rather strange that his heir was practically giving it away for a mere few hundred rings. Something just didn't seem right with that...

By now, Scourge had made it to the top of the gate and jumped off the top, landing gracefully on his feet. He turned towards the other three and grinned.

"You sissies can sit out here and go home if ya want," he said "But I'm gonna go tour the place and see what's _really_ goin' on. There's something lil' Miss Gordon ain't tellin' us, and I'm gonna find out. So, you're either in, or you're out. Either way, I'm goin'." And then he turned and began his trek up the long red-bricked path. The other three hedgehogs remained where they wee standing, staring at Scourge as he walked up the path. They looked at each other again before Sonic sighed, went over to the gate and began to climb it. The other two followed suit, but they were reluctant.

"I know we're gonna regret this..." Silver muttered. In just seconds, all three hedgehogs were over the gate and were soon jogging after Scourge, mainly to make sure he doesn't steal anything out of the mansion or get himself caught and lead the police to them if he's questioned. But they were following him to also see why the house is being sold for such a cheap price. What if he was right? What if there was something really going on that the Gordon's didn't want to public to know? Was it a dark secret? Or were they just tired of the house? Maybe they'll find out when they go into the house, maybe not. But hell; this was way better than staying in the house and watching cheesy 80's horror flicks!

**. . .**

On the third floor of the mansion, a figure with strangely colored eyes watched the four hedgehogs advance towards the house.

"Oh? Oh-oh? What's this?" it said to itself (though it had a female voice) as it leaned closer to the window. "Well, isn't this a treat! Some of those people finally decided to come in! And they're so cute! How wonderful! It's so very delightful! The others must be told! We finally have playmates! That old guy was no fun...But that doesn't matter anymore! We have playmates now! It's so exciting~! Oh! Oh-oh! I better go tell them! They'll be here soon!"

And just like the that, the figure disappeared, going where ever "the others" were.

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><p><strong>End Notes:<strong> Trust me, it may seem like your average fic with spirits in it, but it's not. It'll get good in the later chapters, I promise.

Review if you want to; I'm not forcing you, but all I ask is that you don't be mean if you do leave a review. I accept criticism, not flames.

Thanks for reading! See you next time, and God bless you all!


	2. 2

**Author Notes:** It's hard trying to make this thing not seem like your everyday fic, especially since it has ghosts in it. I don't think I seen anyone do this type yet, but if someone did, then I don't know about it.

Anyway, forget my ramblings. Enjoy the story!

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><p><strong>Locked In? Oh Noes!<strong>

The outside of the mansion may have been impressive, but the inside was...well, I don't think "amazing" or "incredible" could possibly describe it. Maybe it could, maybe it couldn't.

The inside of the mansion was mostly decorated with gold, silver, bronze and timber. A golden chandelier hung from the ceiling as soon as you walked in, giving off light from its flames. There were no carpets anywhere to be seen; the hardwood floor was so shiny that it looked better than any mirror. It must have been polished, who knows how many times before! Grand paintings and photos hung all over the walls, as well as a few weapons (mostly for show) with golden handles embedded with jewels. The grand stair case was probably the only thing with carpeting; very clean, a nice wildfire color, and it looked oh-so soft. But this was only the _begining;_ No wonder what the rest of the place looked like!

Standing in the middle of all of its glory were the four hedgehogs who (reluctantly, for the most part) entered. Sonic whistled, Silver's jaw was dropped, Shadow was downright speechless, and even from behind those red sunglasses, even Scourge was not expecting such a rich wonder.

"This...this place is..."

"Incredible."

"Awesome!"

"Is this _real_ gold?" The four of them slowly walked deeper into the foyer, still gazing around as if they were in some sort of trance.

"There's _no way_ this place is up for sell for just a few hundred rings!" Sonic exclaimed after a few minutes of silence.

"Maybe they found some sort of fatal flaw?" Silver suggested, even though he clearly knew that statement was beyond true.

"Nuh-uh," Scourge said, lifting his sunglasses. "There gots to be somethin' else goin' on here." Sonic was wandering towards the left where supposedly the kitchen or living room was supposed to be when he saw something out of place. He looked down on a small table to see an old book just perfectly lying there. Curious, he reached over and picked it up, only to discover that it was old man Gordon's diary.

"Hey guys," he called "come look at what I found." The other three hedgehogs obeyed, and Silver was the first one to actually open the diary and speed read through most of it. The four of them remained quiet for a while, but then the green grew a little impatient and began to tap his foot a little.

"We're waaaaaaaaaiiiinting," he sang.

"Don't steal my catch-phrase!" Sonic scowled.

"Dude, you have like, over 9000 catch-phrases, so shut your mouth!"

"You're just jealous that you don't have any!"

"Oh really? !"

"Yeah, really!"

"Find anything interesting, Silver?" Shadow asked, clearly ignoring the twins bickering in the background.

"No...he just wrote down what he did everyday..." he sighed, putting the diary back on the table. The four of them then went back to the center of the foyer, looking a bit lost of what to do now. Of course, they could go explore the mansion, but they were also at risk of getting caught if they didn't leave. Still, the mystery of why such a place like this is being sold so cheaply knocked at their heads. Maybe the answer laid deeper within the mansion. But was it worth the risk?

"Um, maybe we should leave now." Silver said, gazing around the foyer with an uncomfortable look on his face.

"Coward," Scourge chuckled.

"But we might get caught by guards who may come in to make sure there's no in the house!"

"C'mon Silver! This is probably the best thing that ever happened to us! 'Sides, do ya wanna go back and watch borin' ol' horror flicks?" Sonic remarked.

"You're not listening! We've seen enough! Let's just go!"

"Silver's right," Shadow said "We already crossed the line when we came in here in the first place. No sense of making the risk of going to jail higher by being in here. I say we leave also."

"So you're goin' too, huh Stripes? Fine. Like I said before, you three do what ya wanna do. I'm stayin'." Scourge said as he folded his arms.

"I'm not leavin' yet," Sonic added. "I wanna explore some more!" Silver groaned as he epically facepalmed.

"You're so stubborn!" he exclaimed before he turned his back on the other three. "Fine then! Do whatever you want! I'm outta here! And if you guys get caught, don't call me to bust you out of jail!" Sticking his nose in the air, Silver marched towards the front door, with Shadow trailing behind him. The grand twin doors were still open from when they entered, but when Silver almost stepped out of the door frame...

_**SLAM!**_

Silver was thrown back as the door slammed shut with such force, it was like it was hit by some super sonic wind (no pun intended). Not only that, but the door made such a loud noise that it could have woken up the neighbors (if there were any), or drawn any attention. On top of that, the lights went out the same time the door slammed shut. All four hedgehogs were clearly shaken by what just happened, but they weren't scared. Just startled. But what caused the doors to close?

After making his breathing steady again, Silver got back to his feet and walked up to the door. He turned both knobs and pulled, but...

"They won't open!" Shadow and Sonic immediately ran up to the door and began to pull at the door with Silver, hoping that their combined strength would open the doors.

But it didn't. The doors were locked and shut firmly. They didn't even show any signs of straining.

"No way!" Sonic grunted, still pulling at the door.

"This isn't possible," Shadow muttered as he backed off. "First the door slams shut with no visible _or_ physical force, and now we're locked in? !"

"You're doin' it wrong," Scourge scoffed. "Move!" The other three moved away from the door as the sound of a buzzsaw could be heard behind them. Scourge had transformed into his Spin Dash and hurled himself at the door at full speed, quills sharpened and looking as deadly as ever.

3...

2...

**_THUD!_**

Scourge bounced off of the door and skidded across the floor until he stopped at the staircase. Now he was pissed; Scourge immediately got up and Spin Dashed the door again. And again. And again. And then a few more times. Eventually he tired himself out, but he didn't accept defeat. But he was too tired to give a damn; he could have sworn some of his quills came off when he skidded across the floor.

"Good goin' Green!" Sonic exclaimed, giving Scourge a mocking thumbs up before he burst out laughing. Scourge growled at his blue counterpart, and he would have went over and kicked his blue ass so hard, his fur would go from blue to purple. But he wore himself out trying to burst the door down; the ass kicking will have to wait.

"Guys..." The four hedgehogs went back up to the door to see Silver staring at the dark wood twin doors. Shadow opened his mouth to ask Silver what was wrong, but then he followed his gaze and soon found out what was wrong. Scourge had hit the door more than enough times to at least make a dint, some scratches, and even make a hole in it.

But the doors were completely unscathed...

No marks.

No scratches.

Nothing. The doors were as bare as Sonic's chest.

"That ain't possible!" Scourge nearly screamed. "You mean to tell me that I did all of that for nothin'? ! There's not even a scratch on the door anywhere!"

"First the door slams shut for no reason, and now this..." Shadow said quietly.

"It's like it's protected by some unknown force..." Sonic mused.

"Oh Chaos," Silver groaned. "I know what's goin' on! We made old man Gordon mad!"

"What?" Silver's multicolored counterparts gave him a look as he stepped away from the door and faced them all.

"Don't you see?" he said. "Old man Gordon's spirit is punishing us for trespassing on his property! Haven't you seen all of those horror movies? We're stuck in here for the whole night! We're gonna get killed off one by one! We're doomed! We're-" Scourge suddenly grabbed Silver by his jacket collar and started to slap him repeatedly across his face.

"Get! A! Hold! Of! Your! Self! You! Naive! Lil'-"

"Scourge, that's enough." Scourge grunted before he pushed Silver to the ground. Though he had some red marks on his cheeks now, Silver had to admit, that was a good reality check. But there was _no_ possible way he was going to tell Scourge that!

And then the lights came back on.

"Huh. Weird," Sonic said to himself.

"Alright," Shadow said, now standing in front of the trio of hedgehogs. "We may be locked in, but there has to be another way out. I say we all split up and look for either a back door or something. If not, then we'll have to spend the night here and leave as soon as possible tomorrow morning. Clear?"

"Well, seeing we have nothing else to do, it's the best thing we can do for now." Silver said, still nursing his bruised cheeks.

"Hey, wait a minute," Scourge said. "Since when are you the boss of me, Stripes? You can't tell me what to do!"

"Actually, we can," Sonic said smugly. "'Cause if ya don't, then we can easily kick ya out of the apartment." Scourge opened his mouth to say some sort of cutting remark, but he had to think about that for a bit. Usually he wouldn't care if he was kicked out of a house; that's become a regular basis for him as of late. But now he couldn't really risk it now. He'd be more vulnerable out on the streets. The police are nearly scrapping the city clean for him since he has so many warrants out for his arrest both here and Anti-Mobius. He could have moved in with Fiona, but they had a nasty break-up ever since she found out Scourge slept with several other girls during their relationship. He was only safe under that one roof where Sonic and his gang were willing to rent the place out to him. Sure he was just taking up space, but it was somewhere where he could sleep at night.

"...Well shit."

"Exactly." Eventually, after a few uncomfortable glances to each other, the four of them broke off into separate directions; Silver went upstairs, Shadow went to the left, Sonic went to the right, and Scourge found a door hiding under the staircase.

It was nothing new for them; the four have them have been living under the same roof for months now. But now they seemed to have gotten a sort of break from each other. The mansion surely had rooms that were far away from each other. Sure they were under the sleeping under the same roof again, but now they're not as close to each other as they would usually be if they were at the apartment. That's what they all came to realize once they were away from one another. So maybe, just maybe, that freaky stuff that happened eariler didn't matter. They were getting a break from each other. That's all that mattered right now.

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><p><strong>End Notes:<strong> I'm going to try and update this every or every other day if I can. Also, I want to apologize for any grammar or spelling mistakes in here. I know I'm going to miss some, and I will correct any I see.

Review if you want to, I'm not forcing you, but all I ask for is for no flames. I accept criticism, praise, all of that, But no flames; I just think they're a waste of time. If you don't like the story, then don't even read it. Click the back button; don't bother with writing a flame if that's all you're going to do. If you don't like it, just leave and find something else you'll like. That's all I ask for.

Anyway, that's enough of my rambling.

Thanks for reading everyone! See you next time, and God bless you all!


	3. 3

**Author Notes:** I hope this isn't up too late.

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><p><strong>Eating And Reading<strong>

Sonic found himself in the grand dining room after going into the door on the right. Another golden chandelier hung from above, plates, napkins and silverware were perfectly placed upon the table as if someone was getting ready for dinner, though no one lived here anymore. There were hardwood floors in here as well, and more paintings hung on the walls. Sonic could smell the faint scent of roasted beef, fine wines, and a little bit of cheese. It was like someone was in here recently, but who? Eh, who cares? He was more focused on finding any food that may be present in the kitchen, which would be right behind that door at the very end of the dining room.

Still, even with food on his mind, Sonic still had enough time to stroll through the room and marvel at its wonder. It wasn't as great as the foyer, in his opinion, but there was still more to the mansion he could explore.

Pulling up his pants a little (like that was going to do anything; they were going to fall back down a millisecond later), the cobalt hero casually walked to the end of the dining room and into the other door. Sure enough, it led directly to the kitchen.

"Sweet!"

The kitchen looked like your everyday kitchen in anyone else's home; there was no gold, just fancy wood, some steel and marble served as the interior design. But it was bigger, that was the only real difference. The smell of cooked food was very strong in here, so it did concluded the fact that someone _had_ to have been in here earlier, and recently.

Sonic took a few steps into the kitchen when he noticed something lying on the table in the middle of the kitchen. It was a berry colored cloth tied in a knot as if it was wrapped around something. Curious, Sonic went up to the table and studied the bundle. It looked out of place, especially since the house had to be clean in order to sell it. And there was a piece of paper sticking out of it. Before touching the bundle, Sonic took the piece of paper off first. A closer look at it revealed that it was a note. It said:

_"Take this as a welcome to our home! _

_Enjoy!"_

"That's not suspicious at all..." Sonic muttered to himself. Because, let's face it, was very suspicious. No one knew that they were in the house, except for the four of them, of course. And the bundle looked like it was placed here just before Sonic walked into the kitchen. Could it have been a trap? Did someone see them come into the mansion and decide to lay a trap for them? Or was the place haunted? Nah...that was just stupid. The note probably wasn't even talking about him. He knew that people wanted to tour the house if they wanted to buy it. Maybe Gordon's daughter placed it here for any clients to make them feel welcome and they forgot about it. That seemed more logical.

Either way, Sonic was still curious. He put the note on the table and undid the knot on the cloth. The cloth was covering a small white box; nothing special about that. That is, until Sonic opened the box...

"Is this chicken?" Yep, it was. There were several strips of grilled chicken, along with some yellow rice, mixed vegetables and some sort of deep red sauce for the chicken. The chicken, rice and vegetables were still releasing steam, signaling that it was still hot. And damn did it smell good. Sure, the food could have been laced with poison or anything, but Sonic didn't give a rat's behind.

"Well, there's no one else here besides me...I'm sure they won't mind if I helped myself to the free food." With his mouth watering, Sonic took a plastic fork that was also in the box and helped himself to the dish. The chicken was perfectly grilled; he could taste the smokiness of the charcoal, as well as some spices like seasoning salt, rubbing sage, maybe a hint of nutmeg, and was there a hint of lemon in there too? The rice was savory; he tasted garlic, but there there was some spicy ting in the back of his neck. Ah, of course. Whoever cooked this added some pepper to it. No, not black pepper, more like either a jalapeno or something. The vegetables weren't bland, surprisingly; there were so many flavors that danced on Sonic's taste buds that he didn't care what they were; the food was good, and that's all he cared about! But he forgot to add the sauce. Oh well...

Sonic sat on one of the stools as he used a toothpick to get rid of any leftovers that may have been stuck in between his teeth. He'll dispose of the box and cloth once he feels that his meal is being properly digested.

"It wasn't as good as chili dogs," Sonic said to himself as he got up and stretched "but it was a good meal either way."

"Oh. So that's your favorite food, then?" Sonic jumped and whirled around, quills hardened and fists clenched. That voice...it was so close, like it was directly behind him.

"Who's there?" he demanded, still looking around the kitchen but not seeing any living thing besides himself.

"I'm in front of you silly!" Sonic made a face. "Oh whoops. Turn around." He turned, but he still didn't see anyone. "Yoohoo~! Down here~!" Sonic lowered his head to see what looked like a little girl in a berry colored apron. But, there was something odd about this girl...

For starters, she wasn't a human or a Mobian, and she sounded like a grown woman. The only thing on her face were were eyes and mouth; no visible ears or nose. She was short too; hardly came up to Sonic's chest. And her eyes were colored weird too. Instead of having a white cornea, colored iris and pupil, the cornea of her eyes were a solid blue, and her iris was white, and she lacked pupils. Her skin was a deep purple, and he had long wavy lavender colored hair. She wore an old fashioned pink dress with the berry colored apron covering the front, dark pink dress shoes and a berry colored bow was on the back of her head.

There was definitely something odd about this woman, what ever she was. And then there was the fact that Sonic was completely alone when he first came in, and now she appeared from thin air (almost literally). Where did she come from? And why was she here when the house was supposed to be completely empty?

The woman giggled as she took what was left of Sonic's meal and disposed of it.

"I'm very glad you like my cooking," she said lyrically. "Not many people have had it, and I wasn't very sure you would like it. Though, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself! But now that I know what your favorite food is, I can prepare it for you." Sonic was beginning to get a little uncomfortable. She was talking to Sonic too casually, as if she knew him or something.

"Um...who exactly are you?" he asked. The girl/woman poked her lip out before she smacked her head.

"Oh my, where are my manners?" She then curtsied and smiled. "My name is Petuni! I'm the cook of this mansion." Sonic made another face.

"The cook?" he repeated. "But no one's living here anymore!" Petuni giggled.

"Not only are you cute, but you're funny too!" Sonic sweatdropped. "Of course there are people living here! We live here, of course!"

"'We'?" Sonic asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Uh-huh," the odd-looking girl/woman replied, wiping her hands on her apron. "We've lived here all of our lives. And we were rather upset that Whitney wanted to sell this place after Phil died...So whenever a lot of people came around to buy it, we would purposely mess with them and send them away. But now Whitney is selling the house so cheaply that we might lose it!" Petuni wiped a tear that was forming in her eye and smiled at Sonic again.

"Those people...they're bad people. We don't like them, but you and your brothers seem different. We like you. A lot. Ever since Phil died, we haven't been the same. No one plays with us as much anymore...Whitney and the others did, but they abandoned us long ago. So, won't you please stay?"

Sonic was a bit overwhelmed; he gave out his sympathy towards the little woman for not wanting the house to be sold, but why did she considered them to be any different? The very reason they came out here was to buy the house for themselves! And that made him feel guilty; he was sure that this woman just wanted a friend or two, not a bunch of strangers trespassing in her home trying to purchase it. Still, something about what she said irked him...

"Oh, by the way," he said "those guys that came in here with me aren't my brothers. We just live together. We're sorta friends, but at the same time, we're not." Petuni smiled again.

"Oh. You all looked alike, so I figured you were brothers. My mistake." Sonic smiled a bit. He was warming up to Petuni a little, even if she was a bit strange. "By the way, what's your name?" Sonic grinned as he gave Petuni his trademark thumbs up.

"I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Petuni courtisied again.

"It's a pleasure meeting you, Sonic. Do you mind helping me cook dinner?" Sonic grinned again.

"Sure!"

**. . .**

Shadow found himself in a hallway that had door after door after door of what ever was on the other side of each of them. This area was too bland, Shadow thought. Just a bunch of doors; they were all probably bedrooms and bathrooms. He was getting bored very quickly, so he decided to go into the next door he passed by.

And he did, but this door was slightly different from the others. The other doors in the hallway were all dark colored wood, but this one was a red color for some odd reason. On top of that, there was a large gap between this door and the two on its left and right sides. This caught Shadow's interest; he wondered what was on the other side of this oddly colored door. Acting on curiosity, Shadow placed his hand on the door knob, turned, and pushed.

What was on the other side? Well, it wasn't a bedroom, or a bathroom. And no, he didn't see anything horrifying or scary or any of that.

He saw books.

That's right; books. He was in a library to be more exact. Now he saw why there were two large gaps between this door and the other ones. The library was H-U-G-E. Ceiling high book shelves completely covered the wall in front of him; a fire place was directly in front of him with a fire already going in it. There was a desk on the far left littered with old papers, pens, pencils and a typewriter. The library was carpeted too; green carpeting covered the entire floor. The scent of what was probably rose incense filled the room, and it was pleasantly cool in here, despite the fire in the fireplace.

Shadow's eyes remained glued to the shelves as he closed the door behind him and walked deeper into the room. He loved to read, and usually heads to Barnes and Noble if he has any money leftover in his bank account to buy books that sparked his interest. But he's _never_ seen so many books in one place before! It could take him his entire lifetime to read all of the books in here, and that was just an estimate.

"Mighty fine collection, ain't it?" Shadow immediately whirled around, hand on his gun, quills hardened, and ready to fight. But there was no one there...or was there?

"Down here, son!" Shadow looked down to see a short man, no higher than his chest, if not that. He was weird looking; he wasn't a human or Mobian. Dark purple skin with no nose or ears; just eyes and a mouth was on his face, but there was something odd about his eyes. Instead of having a white cornea, colored iris and pupil, his cornea were red, and his iris was white. No pupil in his eyes either. He wore a black suit, but no tie, wore reading glasses, and had short pale green hair. And he had a southern accent. Why? We'll never know.

"Who are you?" Shadow demanded immediately.

"No need to be so defensive, son," the short man sniffed. "I mean no harm. The name's Peridot, by th' way. An' you would be...?"

"Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog." Peridot smiled and held out his hand towards Shadow. The ebony hedgehog was a bit reluctant, considering that this guy seemed to have appeared out of thin air. If he would have came in through the door, he surely would have heard him. But he shook his hand regardless; he didn't want to seem rude. Unlike what most people think, Shadow had manners.

"Pleasure meetin' ya, Shadow!" Peridot then led Shadow over to the closest shelf near them. "I saw ya admirin' my collection. I'm the diplomat of this here mansion, ya see. I teach all of th' young'uns 'round these parts. I also love to read an' learn, though I don't look like it. I spent years collectin' these books, and I still ain't done! Hard to believe, huh?" Shadow made a slight face as Peridot pulled out a book from the shelf. What was with him and his attitude towards him? Why was he being so friendly? And why was he even in the mansion to begin with? Weren't they supposed to be the only ones in here?

"Uh, excuse me," Shadow said. "I don't wanna sound rude but...I thought this place was supposed to be empty?" Peridot chuckled.

"Of course it ain't empty, son!" he said. "We've been livin' here for years now, an' we ain't goin' anywhere!"

"'We'?"

"Yes 'we'. What, you thought I was alone or somethin'?"

"Well...kinda. But I thought this place was for sale?" Peridot's smile vanished as quickly as it appeared, and he turned into a slight scowl.

"Phil never wanted to sell th' house," he said quietly "We were close to him an' his kids, accept for Whitney. We never never like that ol' brat. Phil spoiled her rotten! We had no problem with th' others. They were as sweet as honey straight from the hive I tell ya! But Whitney always acted like she was better than everyone here in th' house! Includin' her own father! All that girl ever wanted was money! That's all she saw! So when she saw that ol' Phil was on his last leg, she began preparations to sell th' house, but Phil put it in his will that the house wasn't to be sold! But the will suddenly went missin' an' we all know it was Whitney's doin'. Since then, we've been tryin' our best to not have the house sold by stirrin' up ruckus whenever them suckers tried to buy the place. So far, it'a worked, but we don't know how long we'll be able to keep it up since the house's price is so cheap."

Peridot heaved out a sigh.

"It's a shame, really," he continued. "Th' rest of th kids didn't want to sell the place, but since Whitney was th' oldest, she disregarded 'em completely. We don't know how long we got here until..." He shook his head sadly. "Anyway, that's enough of my sad ol' tale. Oh, that reminds me, we saw y'all enter our house." Shadow grimaced.

"Oh, you saw us?" he said. "It's not our fault, honestly! If Scourge didn't-"

"Calm down!" Peridot chuckled. "We ain't mad! In fact, we're glad you an' yer brothers came along!" Shadow made a face.

"We aren't brothers," he corrected him. "We just live together."

"Ah. I thought you four were related, lookin' alike an' all. So, tell me son, do you like readin' as much as I do?" Shadow smiled slightly and nodded. The grin on Peridot's face grew wider. "Then you an' me are gonna get along just fine! Tell me Shadow, what do you know 'bout calculus?"

"Quite a lot, actually."

Peridot opened up the book he pulled out earlier to reveal a multitude of numbers, equations and what looked like graphs. Though it was hard to tell, it looked like a very early version of today's calculus.

"Is that so? Well then, prepare for a quiz, son, 'cause yer 'bout to get one!"

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes:<strong> Sorry if the ending seems a bit choppy, but it wasn't rushed. I had to work on this during school and at home, plus I had to get homework and taking care of my grandma in between. But, whatever.

Sorry if there are any errors; I'm lacking glasses right now, so expect me to miss a few things. But I will go back and correct anything that I missed. Oh, and the names? Well, the spelling's intended for them.

Review if you want to, but all I ask for is that you don't flame me. You know the drill XP

Anyway, thanks for reading every one! See you next time, and God bless you all out there!


	4. 4

**Author Notes: **I'm going to try and make these a little longer. Sorry if I updated too late.

* * *

><p><strong>Internet Reference, Corner Pocket<strong>

Silver decided to do his exploring on the second floor since he was honestly too lazy to go up to the third floor. The second floor was mostly made up of hallways and widely spaced out doors. Some were bedrooms, and the rest semed to be entertainment rooms it looked like. The lights went out again a few minutes ago too. The mansion wasn't creepy, but Silver kind of regretted watching old horror flicks earlier.

It was after 8 now; the sun was just about gone and it was getting darker outside by the second. He would have to find a room to sleep in for the night, but he wanted a room he would feel comfortable in. All in all, he didn't want to somehow find himself sleeping in old man Gordon's bed since he heard the guy died on it. Because, let's face, that's creepy and a little gross.

Silver had almost made it to the end of the hallway when he started to hear what sounded like a toy trumpet playing coming from the other end. Silver's ears perked up immediately and he began to follow the sound. After a few moments, he heard that the noise was coming from the door smack-dab in the middle of the hallway. Silver pressed his ear upon the wooden door to make sure this was the right one. Sure enough, the sound of the trumpet was very strong on the other side. The silvery hedgehog wasn't sure if he should enter or not, but he was curious on who or what was making that sound. Also, the song that was playing sounded very familiar...

Taking a deep breath and holding it, Silver placed his hand on the cool door knob, turned slowly, and opened.

On the other side, the room appeared to be a game room of sorts. A carpeted (green and blue polka-dotted carpetting) room with a large flat screen, along with a lot of game systems and their games stored in a cabinet underneath it. Multicolored bean bag chairs were all over the floor, so were many varities of toys. There was a foosball table and orther table games in the room too, along with some long couches that lined the wall. But there was someone on the couch...

Silver saw a very odd looking girl sitting on the couch, playing with a platinum toy trumpet. She looked young; possibly Cream's age or a little older. Her skin was a deep purple; she had no visible nose or ears, just two eyes and a mouth were on her face. Her eyes were oddly colored; she had yellow corneas in her eyes and a white iris, but no pupils what so ever. Had long blue hair in a ponytail with a bang; wore a pink short sleeved shirt, a yellow skirt and orange dress shoes. She also had a cute little pink flower clip in her hair.

Silver released a sigh of relief and smiled a bit; the girl may looked odd, but at least she was the one making that music. But, it also raised the question of why she was even in here. Since the mansion was for sale, shouldn't the place be empty?

Silver had to put his thoughts on hold when the girl suddenly stopped playing her trumpet and looked directly at him. His breath got caught in his throat and he started to get nervous. Sure the mansion was supposed to be empty and all, but what if she lived here? Plus, there's the fact that he trespassed onto the mansion to begin with. The girl could start screaming for help because there was an intruder, thus getting him and the others in trouble. But it wasn't his fault; he was influenced by Scourge to come in here in the first place! Plus, they couldn't leave because they were locked in now. So why should he get in trouble for someone else?

But, that didn't happen. The girl smiled at Silver and started to swing her feet, hitting the bottom of the couch a bit since she looked very short. Silver smiled again and walked towards her a bit, a sense of relief coming to him once more.

"Hi there," he said sweetly. The purple girl smiled again and started to play the trumpet again, playing the very same song. But now that Silver was in the room with her, he could recognize the song very well. It was the Forest Maze song from "_Super Mario RPG"_. You know, that game that's the only one just for you? When you play the game you get lost in a phase, and then you find out you're stuck in Geno's maze? There are many secrets in the game that it makes some peeps insane? So some people sometimes cheat in a really good game? Yup, that game.

"Hey, I know that song," he said, nearly standing in front of the little girl now. "That's from _'Super Mario RPG,'_ isn't it? It's the Geno's Maze!" The girl stopped playing again and nodded furiously, looking happier for some odd reason. "Heh! I love that game. I got lost in the forest every time I played though. I'm surprised you know how to play the song so well."

The girl placed her trumpet on her lap and gazed at Silver as if she found a long-lost friend.

"I'm Cobalt," she said in a meek voice. Silver smiled again.

"Hi Cobalt. I'm Silver!" Cobalt smiled at the silvery hedgehog before she put her trumpet next to her, got off the couch, took Silver's hand and pointed to the Nintendo 64 system under the television.

"Do you want to play with me, Silver?" she asked innocently. Silver nodded, and Cobalt started to jumped with joy as she eagerly led him over to the television. When there, Silver pulled up a yellow bean bag chair as Cobalt began to dig through some of the games until she found the one she wanted. Then she went over to Silver and presented it to him.

"This is one of my favorites," she said as Silver looked at the object.

"_'Paper Mario'_?" Silver said. "This is one of my favorite games too! Boy, you have good tastes." Cobalt smiled again as she turned on the television while Silver began to hook up the game.

**. . .**

"This place is supposed to be worth millions, yet the electricity in here is shit!" Scourge growled as he manuvered himself through a dark hallway that was behind a door hidden under the main staircase in the foyer. The lights had went out again, and this time they stayed out. So now Scourge had to rely on the faint glow of an Anarchy Beryl he had with him, and it wasn't doing much, which was pissing him off even more. And since he could hardly see, the hallway was like a maze to him. He ran into a few dead ends and somehow ended up back where he started a few times. His gem was about to go out soon, and he knew it. Since his home world, Anti-Mobius (a.k.a Moebius) had an unlimited supply of Anarchy Beryl, they go out quickly, unlike Mobius' Chaos Emeralds where the power is unlimited unless all of their power was sucked out at once.

Scourge decided it would be best to go into the very next room he comes across to find some sort of light source like a flashlight before his Anachy Beryl went out. And sure enough, that's what he did. Luckily for him, the room he entered had light in it, though it was provided by a few dimly lit lamps. Unfortunately, his gem went out as soon as he entered, so he wasn't too happy. But, he was still lucky in a way; the room he entered was a bar. The bar itself sat on the far right; behind it were shelves and shelves full of all kinds of vintages and alcohol for him to choose from. There were arcade games, dart boards, regular and pool tables scattered everywhere. But then something caught the former king's eye...

He wasn't alone.

He saw a guy that looked around his age at one of the pool tables, but he looked rather odd. First off, he didn't look human, or a Mobian for that matter. Dark purple skin, nothing on his face except his mouth; no ears or nose. Wore a Black Sabbath t-shirt, baggy blue jeans, spiked wristbands and black shoes. He had long silvery hair that covered his eyes, but not completely. He could see that the guy's eyes were oddly colored; green corneas and white irises; no pupils in his eyes at all.

Scourge was on guard; he wasn't sure if this guy was a friend or foe, considering that the mansion was supposed to be empty. Plus, they (mostly he did) trespassed onto the property; this guy could call the authorities at any time and have them arrested.

But he didn't. In fact, he didn't seem to care that Scourge was there in the first place. Maybe he was glad that he came along.

The odd guy finally decided to acknowledge his visitor, quickly glancing up at him before continuing with his game of pool.

"'Sup?" he said simply. Scourge just shrugged.

"The sky." The purple-boy smiled for a bit before managing to get two billiards in the same pocket. Though Scourge was still a bit uncomfortable, he still found himself moving closer to the boy and the pool table. When he got closer, he realized that the guy was shorter than him; he estimated that he only came up to his chest, if not that. And he saw what looked like a scar going down his right eye.

"You play pool?" he asked, resetting the billiards on the table again.

"Used to," Scourge replied. "It's been a while since I played. Might be rusty."

"Then let's test ya." The purple boy suddenly grabbed another cue from its rack and tossed it to the green hedgehog, who caught swiftly from the air with ease. "You got a name?"

"Scourge. You?"

"Cal." Scourge shrugged again before he took his turn hitting a billiard, but not getting it into the pocket.

"Cool jacket," Cal suddenly says randomly. "Where'd ya get it?"

"It was custom made," Scourge replied. Well, he wasn't lying. Before, when he was still Evil Sonic, his jacket was just your everyday plain ol' leather jacket. It only got the flames when he absorbed energy from the Master Emerald that day when he and Rouge ambushed Locke on Angel Island. How they really got there, he would never know. But he didn't care; the jacket became badass, so that's all he cared about.

"So where are your bros?" Scourge gave Cal a look as the purple boy struck another billiard.

"'Bros'?"

"Yeah. Y'know, those other guys you came in with? You all look alike. Aren't you bros?"

"When hell freezes over!" Scourge snorted. "If those losers were my brothers, I'd disown 'em ASAP! We just live together s'all."

"Oh." And then it went quiet between the two. Cal and Scourge took time trying to hit the billiards into the pockets. Scourge was indeed rusty, but was discovering his skill the more he played. He always played pool whenever he went on a booze run at the bars, but it was mostly for gambling. He never lost at pool, especially if money was involved. The only reason he stopped playing was because one of the players found out that Scourge cheated him, and it ended up in a fight, and the police were called. Scourge had already had more than enough warrants on him during that time, and he didn't need another one. So he stopped going to bars; not he just gets his alcohol from the local liquor store whenever he had enough money on him. Though, he missed his beer coming straight from the draft. Now he drinks vodka and wine.

It was quiet for a few more minutes before Scourge asked

"So whaddya doin' in this place anyway? Ain't this place for sale?" Cal found himself scowling.

"Yeah," he said "but it's only because of that broad Whitney. Phil didn't want to place to be sold, but Whitney didn't give two shits about what her dad said. She only wants money, so she put it up for sale anyway, even though Phil put it in his will that the mansion shouldn't be sold."

"So ya live here or somethin'?"

"Yup. We all live here."

"'We'?"

"Yeah. We were very close to Phil and his kids, y'see. But none of us didn't like Whitney. That girl is just a gold-digger, and everyone in the family knew that. Nothin' but a brat. We were so mad when we found out Whitney was tryin' to sell the place, so we started to purposely mess with her clients to get rid of 'em. It's worked so far, but we don't know how long we'll be able to keep it up. With the prices so cheap, we might not have much longer here. But we're not givin' up. We'll kill 'er if we have to, but we're not violent by nature; never were. We're very social, but we just don't like those people who're tryin' to take this place away from us...But we like you guys." Scourge had to raise an amused eyebrow at the last part.

"What makes _us_ any different?" he asked.

"Well, you came right in. You weren't trying to buy the mansion." Scourge started to feel slightly guilty. _SLIGHTLY_ guilty. "We've been lonely ever since Phil died...no one plays with us anymore. We don't get visitors, no one acknowledges us either. Until you guys came along." Cal hit another billiard with his cue, making it go into he top right pocket. "So you're stayin' right?"

"Just for the night." Cal's mood seemed to have dropped dramatically.

"...Oh."

"...But it ain't like we gots anywhere to go to tomorrow. I'm sure we'll be stayin' longer." Cal suddenly looked up at Scourge to find that the peridot hedgehog was smirking. The odd-looking boy smiled again as Scourge took his turn and hit another billiard. Still, unknowingly to Cal, Scourge was thinking heavily. Why the hell did he tell him that they were staying? The whole reason they were over here was the buy the damn place in the first place! And then that sense of guilt that came over him earlier when Cal said they weren't trying to buy the mansion...Usually he wouldn't give a crap about what this kid was saying. Why did it change now?

"Hey, you won." Scourge frowned as he looked at Cal and then the pool table.

"When, and how?"

"You got the 8 ball in the last pocket, so you scored higher than me."

"Huh. Wasn't payin' attention I guess."

"It's ok. Hey, can I ask you somethin'?"

"What?"

"How come your name is Scourge?"

"It's my nickname."

"So what's you're real name?" Scourge bit his bottom lip a bit; he hated his real name. His mom gave him that name, and he didn't mind that at all, but it was the fact of what name she chose to actually be his real name. And no, it wasn't Evil Sonic. Though Scourge would rather die than let a soul find out his real name; it was too embarrassing. So, he was simply going to have to "borrow" someone else's.

"...Maurice. But don't call me that. If ya do, I'll skin ya alive."

"I'm not, I just wanted to know."

"Well now ya do. So are we gonna play again or what?" Cal smirked as he set up the billiards again. Scourge actually found himself enjoying this little game, even if money wasn't involved. He seemed drawn to Cal for whatever reason; he wasn't sure if it was because he seemed just like him or the fact that the kid just looked weird. Either way, he didn't care. He was also trying to figure out how he won the last game.

"One more question," Scourge looked up at Cal with an exasperated look on his face, waiting for it. But Cal just grinned and asked "You got a square?" Scourge grinned, went into his pants pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

"How 'bout we take a quick break an' then pick up the game?"

"Fine by me! Y'know how long it's been since I last had a cig? I get grouchy when I don't get my smokes. Haven't smoked in months. Phil supplied me with 'em." Scourge gave Cal one of his cancer sticks before taking one himself. Scourge put the pack back in his pocket before taking out a lighter and lit both cigarettes. It wasn't long before the room was filled with cigarette smoke and talking.

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes:<strong> I apologize for that reference up there, but I couldn't resist.

Ok guys, you know the drill, so you should already know what I'm about to say. I'm not the best writer in the world, and without my glasses, I can't see a lot things I should, but I'm going to try and correct anything that I see and missed.

And no, Scourge's real name is not Maurice. He "borrowed" Sonic's real name. and yes, Sonic's real name is Maurice. Look it up if you don't believe me.

Review if you want to; I'm not forcing you to, but I do NOT appreciate flames, people. So don't leave 'em; there a waste of both of our time. Anyway...

Thanks for reading! See you next time, and God bless!


	5. 5

**It's Not Even Close To Midnight Yet...**

"C'MERE!" Sonic scowled slightly as he chased what looked exactly like a blue-gray baby dragon. The reason he was chasing it? Well, after the world-famous blue blur assisted Petuni, a mysterious purple-colored woman, cook dinner, another resident of the house decided to be playful with the newcomer. While Sonic assisted Petuni, he had to help her with various tasks (mostly cooking and mixing ingredients). With the heat of the stove staying on in the large kitchen, Sonic began to become a little hot, so he took off his jacket and put it in a chair until he needed it. But that's when the dragon came in, took it, and ran away, thus making Sonic chase after it for his jacket.

Who knows how long Sonic's been chasing the dragon-pup, maybe thirty or more minutes, but now they were running around the foyer. Sonic was getting annoyed by now, but he was thankful that the dragon didn't run anywhere else, or he would have been chasing it all around the mansion. Eventually, Sonic was able to corner the little pup under the stairs. The baby dragon didn't mind though; in fact, it showed off its cuteness by rolling around in Sonic's jacket while making high pitched purring noises. Sonic couldn't stay mad at it after that. I mean, come on people; what else is cuter than seeing a baby dragon roll around in someone's jacket like it was a toy? If you don't think that's adorable, you have no soul.

Sonic had a soul, since he had to admit that it was pretty cute.

"Hey buddy," Sonic cooed as he crouched down and watched the dragon, who stopped rolling occasionally to look at Sonic. "My jacket's comfortable, huh?" The dragon let out a squeal, which was probably it's version of a roar. But it was too cute to strike fear in anyone.

"Heh...you're kinda cute," Sonic said, now next to the dragon and rubbing its head. As it was noted before, the dragon was a bluish-gray color, with misty blue eyes, tiny wings, and white horns on its head. The dragon squealed as Sonic rubbed its head, letting him know that it was enjoying the attention. It eventually rolled over to its back, and Sonic began to rub its belly, making its leg shake like crazy.

"So, you two are friends now?" Sonic looked up to see Petuni standing directly behind them, smiling apologetically. Sonic wished that she would at least make some sort a noise when she's moving; she's so silent that it's almost like she appears and then disappears from place to place.

"Yeah," Sonic replied, picking up both the dragon and his jacket. "Is it yours?"

"He doesn't belong to us," Petuni explained, walking up to Sonic and petting the dragon. "He just appeared in the garden one day. We've kept him ever since." Petuni's smile softened when she saw how much the dragon enjoyed being in Sonic's arms. He even got on his hind legs and began to lick the blue blur's face furiously, making Sonic laugh.

"Why don't you keep him?" Sonic's eyes widened as he looked at the short purple woman.

"Wh-wha..."

"He likes you. I mean, we had no intention on keeping him...In fact, we couldn't. But we kept him here just to give it somewhere to stay until he had gotten older, learned to fly and go off on his own. But he hasn't been growing...I believe you would give him the proper love and care he needs." Sonic's mouth as open slightly; he wasn't sure what to think about Petuni's words. Sure the dragon liked him, but he had no intentions on keeping him either! Besides, he as well as the others, were on their toes with the landlord ever since he found out Scourge slept with his wife (no joke). He threatened to kick them all out, but Shadow luckily pulled an ace and simply said that he couldn't kick them out just because his wife cheated on him that one night (besides, it was mostly her own fault for that anyway). In the end, the landlord allowed them to stay at the apartment, but that was only if they kept up with the rent. If they became behind on their payments just one time, they were out. So, with all of that said, Sonic didn't think their landlord was going to allow them to keep any pets.

But...Sonic found it hard to say no to the dragon pup. Those big blue eyes were just begging him to take him home. In the end, Sonic looked down at the dragon baby he was holding, smiled, and then held him up in the air.

"The others might not be happy," he said honestly "but screw them! You're gonna be my new best buddy, aren't ya?" The dragon squealed again, agreeing to what Sonic just said. Sonic smiled again and held up the baby dragon a little higher. And then he started to speak in an English accent from the Middle ages.

"Then from this day forward...thou shall be known as...Orok, the Small and Annoying!" Petuni giggled.

"Where did that come from?" she asked. Sonic lowered "Orok," tucked him under his arm and rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "I've been watching _"A Knight's Tale"_ a little too much lately..." Petuni smiled again, and then she started to speak in the same English accent from the Middle Ages.

"Well then, 'Sir' Sonic and 'Sir' Orok, would thou assist me in setting the table?" Sonic placed Orok on the floor and bowed.

"It would be an honor, m'lady." They both laughed before Petuni led Sonic back into the dining room, and Orok trotted after Sonic happily.

**Meanwhile...**

"I'm tellin' ya son, it was Jared!"

"No it's not! He doesn't have a reasonable alibi to kill Marvin!"

"He could be lyin'! Ya can't really trust anyone when it comes to murder!"

"Peridot, trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I've been an officer long enough to know how a criminal thinks. I'm telling you, it was Brittany!"

"But why would Brittany kill 'er own boyfriend? That makes no sense!"

"Weren't you paying attention? Marvin had a one-night stand with Brittany's best friend Rebecca! She had a perfectly good alibi to kill Marvin! Besides, Rebecca wanted Marvin, but when she found out Marvin was with Brittany, she was going to try her best to ruin their relationship!"

"But that makes no sense. If that were true, wouldn't Brittany kill Rebecca instead?"

"..."

"Exactly. I'm tellin' ya Shadow, it's Jared."

"But why would Jared kill him? Explain that to me."

"Same thing; jealously. Jared liked Rebecca, and he and Marvin were rivals. His alibi is perfect for the crime. 'Sides, Brittany is too sweet to kill someone." Apparently, the library had its own television (for some reason). Peridot and Shadow had finished their calculus lesson and decided to watch an episode of _"Bones."_ Now they were arguing on how killed a guy named Marvin by killing him and cutting him up into pieces, putting him in a garbage bag and dumping his gruesome remains in a field. The body was discovered by a couple hiking, and the body was identified once it was recovered. Now that the suspects have been gathered, Peridot and Shadow argued on who killed him. The show was an hour long, and they were only fifteen minutes into it. They were going to have to watch the whole episode to find out who was right.

"I still say it was Brittany." Shadow said stubbornly as he crossed his arms.

"An' I still say it's Jared," Peridot replied. "I say we wait until they gather more evidence an' THEN try to identify th' killer."

"Fine by me." Then both grew silent and turned their attention back to the television, occasionally exchanging glares with one another.

"...It was Brittany." Shadow muttered under his breath.

"It was Jared!" Peridot exclaimed.

"Brittany!"

"Jared!"

"Brittany!"

"Jared!"

"BRITTANY!"

"JARED!"

"BRITTANY!"

"JARED!"

This was going to take a while...

**What was Silver up to?**

Cobalt giggled with joy as Silver used another red Koopa Shell to knock away his opponents. Silver was playing _Paper Mario_ earlier, but now they moved on to _Mario Kart Wii_. Silver was demolishing the competition, winning two races in a row. He was playing as Luigi and was working on the Leaf was in the background, cheering for Silver every time he won. Silver felt proud of himself; Shadow always told him that he played too many video games, but he was a video game wizard.

Luigi performed another trick on his bike as he flew off another ramp on the course, making him go from 2nd place to 1st on the first lap.

"Heh, this is almost too easy!" Silver smirked to himself.

"Yeah!" Cobalt agreed, suddenly having pom-poms in her hands. "No one can beat Silver! He's to awesome!" Silver blushed, but then his concentration went back to the race. He had just crossed the finished line and started his second lap when some jerk hit him with that God-forsaken blue spiked Koopa Shell with wings. Cobalt gasped and Silver gritted his teeth and gripped the steering wheel accessory tighter. The blast from the shell stunned him for a few seconds, and those few seconds made him fall to 5th place.

"Ok, now it's gotten serious!" Silver growled.

"Go Silver, go!" Cobalt cheered.

**Well, what's Scourge up to around this time?**

Cal snickered as he pulled out a small cardboard box from out of the closet of what looked like Cal's own room while Scourge leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, trying to look badass.

"This is my secret stash," Cal grinned, opening the box and motioning for Scourge to come over. "I've collected a lot of them over time, and hid them in here so that no one would see 'em." Cal then pulled out what looked like a magazine, with a violet colored hedgehog on the front cover wearing a cat tail and a large pink bow tied around her neck.

"You have a stash of '_Playhog'_ magazines?" Scourge asked eyes widening.

"Not only that..." Cal smirked as he pulled out other dirty magazines from the box. Each of them had echidnas, foxed, mongooses, bats, wolves, and all other Mobian females posing on the front cover.

"'_Bloody Valentine'_..._'Eve's Garden'_..._'Exotic Velvet'_...Dude, you have the works!" Scourge exclaimed as he went through the box. "And these are rare! How'd ya get 'em?"

"Secret, bro," Cal smirked as he winked at the green hedgehog. Scourge grinned at him and began to read another_ "Playhog"_ magazine he found.

"Hehehe...whoa-no way! They're nude in these!" Cal grinned.

"Well duh," he said. "All of the rare ones have the babes nude in them." Scourge's grin grew wider.

"You, my friend, are my hero," he snickered. "Hehe...I'm gonna be here for a while..."

"You an' me both," Cal agreed. "By the way, my room has an en suite bathroom, so if you gotta...y'know..."

"Yeah, I know. An' trust me, it won't be long before I need some privacy." Scourge's eyes suddenly widened a bit. "Actually, I need it right now..."

"Take the mag with ya, and close the door 'cause I don't wanna see ya," Cal said, not looking up from his magazine.

"Done," Scourge grunted as he stood up, went into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

**Okaaaay...Meanwhile, in the Dining Room...**

"Finally! My life is complete! I have finally met the Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"Roxy! Let him go!"

"Unhand me you Reala Chao ripoff!" Sonic struggled furiously while Petuni and Orok tried to pry another purple-skinned girl with dark red hair, pink corneas and wore a bright red shirt and jeans outfit that had a jester design on them. And her hair were pinned up in ponytails behind her head. She came into the the dining room to get a snack from the kitchen, but that changed once her eyes laid on the famous blue blur. Since then, she's been embracing him in a death grip-like hug. And yes, she sort of looked like a Reala Chao.

"Roxy, release him this instant!" Petuni demanded as she tried to pull the girl, who seems to be named Roxy, off of Sonic.

"No!" Roxy exclaimed. "I've been waiting for this moment! The man of my dreams finally fell from the heavens and came here to sweep me off my feet and take us to paradise!"

"Dear Chaos," Sonic moaned to himself. "the last thing I need is another Amy..." Petuni frowned as she picked up a rolling pin that happened to be sitting on the table. And then, the short purple-skinned woman began to hit Roxy on her head repeatedly until she finally gave in and released Sonic. Once Roxy let him go, Orok immediately jumped into the blue blur's arms and growled at Roxy.

"WAAAAAHHH!" Roxy cried, now sitting on the floor with a bump on her head. "P-P-Petuni! How could you be so mean? !"

"We've been through this before, Roxy," Petuni said sternly as she gazed down at Roxy with her arms crossed. "Have you not heard a word I've said every time we have that discussion! You can't fall in love with every boy you see, pounce on them and expect you to like them! And Chaos forbid you try to pull that on a celebrity!" Roxy sniffed as she wiped another tear from her eye and looked up at Roxy.

"B-b-b-but...I...I always wanted to meet him! He was always my dream guy!" Petuni sighed, turned and faced Sonic and gave him an apologetic look.

"I'm very sorry for this, Sonic," she said "but do you mind leaving us alone for a few minutes? I need to talk with Roxy privately."

"Uh...sure...no problem..." Holding on to Orok, who was still growing at the red-haired girl, Sonic walked out of the dining room, making sure to steer very clear of Roxy in the process. He opened the door to go back into the foyer, but was surprised to see another dark-skinned person standing directly in front of the doorway. This person looked exactly like Roxy; same hair color, same eye color, same outfit, and same age. Except this person's hair was shorter, his clothes were green, and he looked calmer than Roxy.

"Oh, sorry for getting in your way," he said as he moved aside and allowed Sonic to pas through. Sonic glanced at the boy as he stepped into the foyer.

"And you would be...?" he asked.

"I'm Ron, Roxy's twin. I already know who you are. You're Sonic the Hedgehog. Oh, I see you found the dragon. You must be keeping him."

"Yeah. His name's Orok."

"Cool!" Sonic smiled slightly.

"So, what's up with your twin?" Ron's mile suddenly faded, and he bit his bottom lip a little.

"Well...uh...hm...I guess they didn't tell you yet." Sonic tilted his head curiously.

"They didn't tell me what?" Ron looked around the foyer for a bit, before he held onto Sonic's hand and led him towards the staircase.

"There's something that we needed to tell you...And we want to tell you soon so that...maybe...you could help us."

"Help you? With the mansion being for sell?"

"Yes, along with a few other things." Ron led Sonic to the third floor of the mansion. Unlike the rest of the house, the third floor wasn't really that great. There weren't many rooms, and there was only one hallway. Ron held Sonic's hand tighter as he pulled him towards the third door on the left. Ron opened the door to reveal what looked like an attic. Things like boxes, crates, junk, and shelves filled with old books were everywhere. Ron released Sonic's hand and went over to one of the book shelves, looking through the books as if he was looking for a specific book. The blue hero placed his new dragon friend on the ground and slowly went up to Ron, who had found the book he was looking for by now. He pulled out a large black book and placed it on one of the tables, and then looked up at Sonic.

"Something tells me I'll have to sit down," Sonic said randomly.

"And you would be correct," Ron said, smiling slightly. Sonic shrugged a bit before sat on the opposite side of where Ron was sitting.

"I'm not sure where I can begin..." Ron said silently as he opened the book to a random page.

"Start wherever you think is best," Sonic encouraged. "I'll listen regardless."

"Well..." Ron skimmed through the book some more before he bit his bottom lip, and closed it. "Maybe I should started from the beginning..." Orok found his way back onto Sonic's lap, and placed his paws on the table as Ron began to speak.

"Phil Gordon was a great man," Ron said "Had a heart of gold, and he was pure and noble soul. Before the mansion was built, this very spot was the remains of an orphanage. The orphanage was built more than a century ago, but was shut down after a fire mysteriously started. Everyone was evacuated in time...except for a certain group..." Ron reopened the book, flipped through a few pages until he found what he was looking for. He appeared to have turned pale as he turned the book around and pushed it towards Sonic so he could see what ever was inside.

Curious, the blue blur pulled the book closer to him to see the contents inside. He was a little surprised to see that both pages he were currently on was just a big black and white photo. The photo contained a lot of children and a few adults standing together in front of a large building that was probably the orphanage Ron spoke of. Most of them were Mobians, and only a handful were humans.

"The orphanage was a great place," Ron went on. "All of the children got along perfectly with one another. There were no fights, and we were just one big happy family." The purple boy stood up, leaned over the table and pointed at the picture, and then traced his finger around the bottom of the photo. Sonic's eyes widened a bit when he saw that Ron was leaving a pale red mist as his finger drew a circle around the bottom of the group. When he finished, Ron looked up at Sonic again and pointed at the area he circled; the red mist remained there.

"That's us," Ron said silently. Sonic frowned a bit as he leaned in closer to the photo. The group consisted of probably 8 or 9 beings. It took him a while, but he was able to see that one of them, a lavender colored echidna with wavy hair and dreadlocks, solid blue eyes, and she was wearing a pink old fashioned dress, a berry colored apron, and a bow behind her head. There was no mistaking it; that was Petuni! And there were two dark red cats standing next to her wearing different colored outfits that had a jester pattern; Ron and Roxy. Sonic examined the whole group, looking at each person, unable to believe that these...things were once Mobians and humans.

"The fire took place late at night," Ron went on. "We had no fire alarms back then, so we didn't know what was going on. We were woken up when we heard screams coming from the other floors. We were on the fourth floor, the highest floor of the orphanage. The fire took place on the second and third floors. Everyone else managed to escape, but we couldn't. The fire had spread through the entire orphanage by now. The ladders that fire fighters of that time supplied were too short to reach us. We were planning on jumping out of the building...but...then..." Ron shuddered, and began to rub his arms as if he was cold. "Then the support of the building went out, and the orphanage collapsed on all of us, and we died..."

Sonic gaped at Ron with his mouth ajar, and Orok let out what was probably the saddest purr a baby dragon could let out.

"So...you're...ghosts?" Sonic choked out. Ron laughed a bit.

"Not exactly," he said. "In fact, we're not really sure what we are. All we know is that we're dead, but not ghosts. We're more like spirits or souls with a physical form. And we're not the only ones it seems; there are more of us scattered throughout Mobius and even Anti-Mobius, and possibly other worlds as well!" Sonic started to remember all of the ghost movies he's watched over the years. He knew that ghosts were spirits of the dead who manage to manifest themselves into a physical form, but you could see through them and you couldn't touch them unless that touched you or if you turned into a ghost yourself. But these...things...you couldn't see through them, you could touch them, and they didn't seem to be filled with sorrow, rage, or any sort of depressing emotion that most movies portrayed them to be. But Sonic was curious...

"So you've been stuck here for 100 years..." Sonic trailed. "What was it like?"

"Horrible!" Ron cried, tears coming to his eyes at an alarming rate. "We were stuck under that rubble for Chaos knows how long! We still hear the screams and sobs of those who tried to tried to save us...We felt their devastation, their sorrow, their guilt...We were like a family, and to have it suddenly ripped apart from you..." Ron sniffed as he started to wipe away his tears with the back of his sleeve.

"Our bodies were burned badly in the fire," Ron trailed. "But they recovered them nonetheless. Our funeral was beautiful but...Anyway, even though our bodies were destroyed, our souls remained here...We could have left, but we were somehow bound to the land where the orphanage once stood."

"Have you ever...y'know, have you ever tried to cross over?" Sonic asked curiously, yet sheepishly. Ron gave Sonic what was probably a sideways smile.

"No," he replied. "We never wanted to." Sonic's ears perked up and his eyes widened a bit again. Now he was _really_ interested! "We never wanted to cross over. The reason for this was because as time passed, we found out that somehow, someway, the forces of either nature or magic were building us bodies, but not our own. Before long, we had bodies again, but they were very different. We were shorter than we were when we were alive, and we weren't a human or a Mobian, but we weren't ghosts either. Even so, we could turn invisible and visible as we pleased like ghosts. So that's why we seemed to have appeared out of nowhere from time to time. Also, we found out we could no longer age."

"More than 50 years had passed, and the area where the orphanage was remained ruined until grass began to grow in that spot again. But that area remained untouched because it became a memorial for us. And we also saw how much the world was changing around us. But the main reason we never left was because...we felt that it wasn't our time to leave just yet. And...we were awfully lonely...No one from the orphanage came back to that area. Well, they have sometimes, but every time they did, they would become overcome with guilt and sorrow, that they would burst into tears as soon as they stepped foot onto the property. Eventually, they stopped coming, and we could understand why. They all carried that burden that it was their fault that we died, but it wasn't. And we never wanted them to feel that way..."

"A century had passed by now, and we were slowly losing hope. The area was so empty and lonesome...we thought we were going to remain alone forever unless we decide to cross over. And then...that's when Phil found us." Ron found another book from the shelf and put it on the table. This time, it was a scrapbook. Ron opened it and pointed at a black and white photo of a tall human man with sleek ark brown hair, a kind face and a trimmed mustache.

"Phil was in his early twenties when he found us...He came from a rich family bloodline, so he had a lot of money. He was traveling around Mobius, trying to discover what he wanted to do with his life now that he was out of the house. One day, his travels led him to the site where the orphanage was, and he found us, cold, alone, shattered, and using very small make-shift cottage as our home. Phil took pity on us, and...and he gave us the one thing we've been wanting for 100 years...Hope. And love."

"We explained to Phil our situation, and he listened. Once we were done with our tale, his sympathy deepened, and he made a promise to us."

"What was the promise?" Sonic asked. Ron smiled, and he was developing more tears in his eyes.

"He promised us that he...he would give us a family again. He promised that he would give us a home again, be our friends, and give us playmates. We didn't want to be a burden to Phil, but he made up his mind. So we stayed with him in a hotel while he began to build this mansion from the ground up. But the mansion wasn't for him...It was for us. Phil was horrified when he learned that we were practically kids when we died, so he decided to build a place where we could find solace...The mansion took 10 years to build, but Phil made it happen. Eventually, once the mansion was built, Phil married and had five children. We were a family, and everything was perfect. Th-that's why this place means a lot to us. It can't be sold...Whitney...she can't..."

Ron suddenly burst into tears and buried his head into his hands and sobbed. Sonic jumped and Orok hopped out of Sonic's arms as he trotted over to Ron and began to paw at him while making more squealing noises. Our blue blur hero was a bit overwhelmed, but his kind heart soon took over. He got up from his seat, went over to Ron and just hugged him while rocking him back and forth. Sonic knew that Ron was still just a kid, even if he did try to seem mature. To think that he, along with everyone else that lived here, had to live alone for a century after they died such a horrible death...And their own friend died just months ago and the daughter of their friend was threatening to sell the mansion! Sonic became angry at Whitney; how could she even do such a heartless thing to these poor souls? And to do this to them just for money? That was unforgivable!

Sonic did his best to calm Ron down, but eventually decided to let the poor boy shed his tears; it's probably been a very long time since he last cried. Better let him release those emotions now than keeping them bottled up.

It literally took Ron 10 minutes before he finally stopped sobbing. And Sonic stayed with him, wrapping him in a tighter hug from time to time, cooing at him to calm him down. Ron still shed some tears, but his sobs were reduced to pitiful hiccups.

"It's not fair!" Ron cried, burying his face into Sonic's chest. "How could she do such a thing, Sonic? Are there really people out there who care about nothing but money? !" Sonic's ears drooped and he bit his bottom lip. He wasn't sure how he was going to explain to Ron that not everyone in the world are as nice as old man Phil Gordon, or even the people they knew as they grew up in the orphanage. But there are nice people in the world; you'll just have to find the right ones.

"Hey...shhh...it's gonna be alright," Sonic cooed, rubbing Ron's back. "We'll help you."

"You will?" Ron sniffed, looking up at the blue hero. Sonic nodded firmly, but then his gaze lowered.

"Actually, Ron...I have to be honest with ya," he said quietly. "I know you like us and all...but...you probably shouldn't trust us either. Y'see, the only reason we even came up here in the first place was to buy the mansion...We...we had no idea that you guys were here...And we came in because a...well, someone we know was trespassing and we followed him to make sure he wasn't going to do anything stupid...I-I'm sorry Ron...but..."

"So? We would rather have you guys have the mansion then those other people." Sonic looked up to see Ron was smiling at him, though his face was covered with dried tears. "Even if you guys were trying to buy the place, we can tell who's a good person or not. We all know of your heroics Sonic, as well as Shadow's and Silver's, though I can't speak for Scourge." Sonic's eyes widened.

"How do you know our..." Ron suddenly went into his pants pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a piece of newspaper. The spirit boy gave the paper to Sonic and smiled again. The blue blur gave Ron a sort of questioning looking before unfolding the piece of paper, just to see that it was an article of a newspaper ripped out. But it wasn't just one article; there were two. The first one was a picture taken shortly after Scourge transformed. He, Scourge and Shadow were standing in front of the remains of a reptile-like robot Dr. Robotnik/Dr. Eggman sent on them during a fight. The three of them took it down, and while the three of them stood over the robot's remains, the picture was taken.

The other picture had Silver in it this time, and it was when Scourge launched that surprise attack on Mobius. Sonic and Scourge were thrown into Anti-Mobius, and the fight between them, and a few others continued. However, this picture had Silver trying to hold back Super Scourge while Sonic and Shadow tried to get back to their feet. Sonic remembered both times as if they had happened yesterday.

"I've always admired you, Sonic," Ron went on. "When I found out about you, I always dreamed of becoming like you one day. But then Shadow and Silver came along, and I admired them too. I admire Scourge a little bit, only because I read up on how he single-handedly took over an entire planet. I...I had a dream that, maybe you guys would one day come here to help us...and my dream finally came true."

Sonic's hand trembled as he listened to Ron's words and gazed at both pictures. Sure the boy was dead and could no longer age, but he had dreams! Not only that, but one of them came true! No telling what other kinds of dreams Ron had. But they wouldn't come true if Whitney sold the mansion...I mean, what would happen to him and the others if the place was sold? They couldn't leave; they were bound to this area. Would they have to remain in hiding if some total stranger came in and took over? Would they have to go another century, possibly more, in loneliness? He was not going to stand for that!

Orok purred and placed his paws on Sonic's lap as the hedgehog balled his hands into fists. He knew what he had to do now, but he couldn't do it alone. He'll need everyone's help. And he wasn't just talking about the other three hedgehogs he lived with; he was talking about everyone in the mansion.

"Ron," Sonic said. "Besides, you, Roxy and Petuni, who are the others that live here with you?"

"Um...well, I'll have to show them to you," Ron replied, a bit startled by Sonic's sudden question. "Why?" Sonic looked up at Ron and grinned.

"'Cause we're gonna need everyone's help if we're gonna save this place, right?" Ron's eyes widened, and Sonic could have sworn he saw a twinkle in the spirit's eyes.

"Y-you're really gonna help us?" he asked, trying his best to contain his excitement.

"You bet I'm gonna help!" Sonic exclaimed, now standing. "You think I'm just gonna sit here and let a bunch of good kids become homeless just because some broad wants money? I'm not going to stand for it, and neither should you guys! I'm gonna help, but we're going to need everyone if we wanna pull this off. So, are ya with me?"

"Hell yeah!" Ron said jumping up. Orok let out a squeal-roar as he jumped up too. "Let's do it!" Sonic winked and gave Ron his trademark thumbs up.

"Alright! Let's get started!"

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes:<strong> Ok, I'll admit, the ending was kinda cheesy, but it seemed fitting for Sonic, don't you think?

Sorry if this chapter took so long, but it was a long chapter, and I wanted to at least fit in most of the plot to it early so it won't end up getting to that point very late into the story.

I went over and corrected anything I could find, but if I missed some errors, forgive me. My glasses are useless and I'm currently trying to invest in some contacts.

Review if you want to, but all I ask for is no flames. But I accept criticism and anything that points out mistakes. But that's just me. Anyway...

Thanks for reading everyone! See you next time, and God bless! ^^ (By the way, the next chapter might be delayed. Sorry!)


	6. 6

**Author's Notes:** Ok, let's get something cleared up here; apparently, I got my facts mixed up. Maurice is NOT Sonic's first name, it's his middle name. I always got that confused for some odd reason...

Anyway, with that cleared up, enjoy the episo-I mean chapter.

* * *

><p><strong>This Is NOT Luigi's Mansion<strong>

"...And Peridot was the diplomat of the orphanage. He came here from Downunda and stayed here ever since. Petuni became the cook here; she was training under the original cook of the orphanage. Roxy and I became orphans after our parents died, Cal and Cobalt are brother and sister. Cal is Cobalt's big brother; their family died in a genocide, but they survived. The last three are triplets. Their names are Emi, Eric and Evan. Peridot can be found in the library most of the time since he loves to read, Cobalt is usually found in the game room on the second floor because she loves to play video games, Cal hides out in the bar to play pool or in his own room doing whatever guys his age do. Petuni's usually in the kitchen, Roxy and I just wander around the place, and I'm not sure about the triplets. They just wander around too. You'll have to be lucky to find them in one of the rooms or in the hallways, or you could try to call for them."

Sonic wrote down every little detail as Ron explained about the residents of the mansion to him in the little notepad he somehow acquired just moments ago.

"Alright," Sonic sighed as he put his pencil down and took off his reading glasses (don't ask where he got those from either). "So there's 9 of you in total?"

"Uh-huh."

"Ok. So who should we look for first?"

"Ummm...Maybe we should get your friends first. 'Cause 9 times out of 10, one of them might be with each other. Just saying."

"Hmm..." Sonic rubbed his chin a little. "I'm not sure where Silver might be, but I know Shadow would be with Peridot since he likes to read too, and Scourge would most likely be in the bar just for the booze. Our best bet is going after Shadow and Peridot first." Ron smiled and nodded.

"Good idea! We better head down to the library then."

"Yeah. By the way, you know what time it is?"

"Ummm...judging by how the moon is positioned, I'm guessing it's a little after midnight."

"Ok...Well, let's head to the library!"

"Alright!" Ron held onto Sonic's hand again and started to jog out of the attic, with Orok right behind them.

_I wonder what's Silver up to.._.Sonic thought to himself.

**Meanwhile...**

Cobalt laughed with glee as she and Silver danced on their new accessory. They went from _Paper Mario_ to _Mario Kart Wii_, and now they were playing a game of_ DDR_. The room was filled the the sound of rock and roll, pumping up the little one with excitement. Silver was doing most of the work, racking up a lot f points, but Cobalt helped every now and then.

"Follow me, set me free, trust me and we will escape from the city!" Silver sang along with the song while busting a few moves.

"We're gonna win Silver!" Cobalt exclaimed, trying her best to mimic Silver's moves the best way she could.

"You bet!" Silver replied. "Hey, wanna play _Mario Party 2_ after this?"

"Yeah!" Silver laughed as Cobalt gripped onto his hands and started to dance some more. Both were enjoying themselves, and each other's company.

**. . .**

Ron held Sonic's hand tightly as he led the blue blur towards the library. When there, Ron released Sonic's hand and knocked on the library door a few times.

"Peeeeeerrrrriiiiiidooooot!" he called. "It's me, Ron! Are you in there?"

"Come on in, lil pard!" Peridot called from the other side of the door. Ron smiled as he opened the door and went inside; Sonic and Orok followed the spirit Mobian into the library. As it was noted before, the library contained many books, a fireplace, and a television. Peridot, the pale green haired man smiled at Ron, and then looked up at Sonic, who now had Orok resting on his shoulder.

"So you're Sonic the Hedgehog!" Peridot exclaimed, extending his hand. "Shadow had a lot to say 'bout ya son."

"Wait, what did Shadow say about me?" Sonic asked while shaking Peridot's hand, worried about what his ebony rival might have said about him.

"Not much," Peridot replied honestly. "He just says that yer a good guy, just a lil' cocky."

"Oh. Well, speaking of the Shadster, is he in here?"

"Sonic, how many time have I told you to _never_ give me nicknames?" As predicted, Shadow was sitting at the desk with a multitude of books around him. He was wearing his reading glasses again, and seemed very interested in whatever he was currently reading. Orok hopped out of Sonic's shoulder as he followed Ron, who was going over to the ebony one. Shadow raised an eyebrow when he saw Orok but said nothing.

"Hello Mr. Shadow," Ron said. "I'm Ron! You're one of my heroes!" Shadow smiled, and even patted the spirit boy's head.

"Well, that's nice to hear," he said. "But call me Shadow. No need to put 'mister' in front of my name." Ron made a slight face.

"But, aren't you over 50 years old?"

"In a way," Shadow replied. "But shortly after I was created, I was put to sleep for over 50 years. If you wanted to know my exact age, I would be considered 18 or 19, but I can't age. So, looking at this at a scientific view, I'm actually younger than everyone else."

"Wow...you're smart! What else do you know?"

"Uh, I'm sorry to interrupt, but don't we have something important to do, Ron?" Sonic asked. Ron gave the blue blur a sheepish grin before going back over to him.

"Hehe...right, sorry," he said.

"Hey Shadow, we need to talk to everyone."

"You mean the 4 of us?" Shadow asked curiously.

"No, everyone in the mansion." Shadow raised an eyebrow, and was about to ask, but was cut off when Sonic waved his hand. "See, Ron told me about the history of this place, and everyone here." Peridot suddenly lowered his head. "And we need everyone here, including Scourge and Silver, as well as the others."

"Where are you going with this, Sonic?" Shadow asked.

"I want to help these guys keep the mansion," Sonic replied. Shadow made a slight face, thinking that Sonic was pulling some sort of joke, but when he saw the seriousness in Sonic's eyes, he knew that this was obviously important. "I'll explain as soon as we get Scourge and Silver here."

"No, ya don't need to, son," Peridot said quietly. "I think it'll be best if they heard it straight from th' horse's mouth. Here's what we'll do; you two go an' assemble yer buddies and I'll get everyone else."

"Easier said than done," Sonic said. "There's no telling where Silver is, and Scourge could be somewhere doing Chaos knows what." Peridot rubbed his chin a bit before he smiled.

"I think I know where both of 'em fellers are," he said. "Y'all just wait right here. I'll be back before you can say 'tater-tots'." And then the short man suddenly disappeared. And it only took him a few seconds before he reappeared while holding onto 2 beings. One of them looked just like the other spirit-Mobians, while the other looked like a very familiar green hedgehog.

"Told ya I'd find 'em," Peridot said proudly as he released both of them. Orok curiously crept over to Scourge's shoes and began to sniff at them. Said green hedgehog looked down at the little dragon and raised an eyebrow.

"...What is that?" he asked simply.

"A dragon," Peridot, Ron and Sonic replied.

"Can you get everyone else?" Ron asked Peridot.

"Yup. Just give me a minute." Peridot replied before disappearing again.

"Alright Blue, Stripes," Scourge said once Peridot left. "What's goin' on? Why did ya bring us down here?"

"It's concerning the mansion and its inhabitants," Sonic replied seriously. "But everything will be explained once everyone gets here."

**Did Silver get the message?**

"Silver, this game scares me..."

"It's okay Cobalt! If you're ever scared, just come closer to me." Cobalt gripped Silver's jacket tighter as she watched Silver begin a new game, which was _Luigi's Mansion_. Silver decided to start a new game instead of doing any of the saved files just to see if he had any of his ghost hunting skills with him. And it was very ironic that Cobalt was afraid of ghosts in a video game, even though she's kinda/sorta a ghost herself. But Silver didn't know that, and it looked like he wasn't going to learn about Cobalt's secret for a while.

Speaking of Cobalt, the young spirit girl yelped and buried her head into Silver's side as an orange ghost appeared in front of Luigi. Silver understood Cobalt's plight; this game kind of freaked him out the first time he played it, and he still found the game a bit scary even now. Still, he wanted to remain strong for the younger one. The silvery hedgehog patted Cobalt's head and told her that Luigi was no longer in the mansion. Cobalt became relieved and began to watch Silver some more.

"Why does Luigi have a big red thing on his back?" Cobalt asked curiously.

"That's his new weapon Cobalt," Silver explained, trying to complete the training session of the first part of the game. "It's called the Poltergust. It sucks up the bad ghosts and they get turned into paintings."

"So the mean ghosts will get sucked up in the red thingy and get turned into a picture?"

"Right-o!" Cobalt looked thoughtful for a moment, and then smiled.

"I like this game now!" she giggled.

"Yeah, me too," Silver replied. "It's sad though. It's a such a good game, but it's underrated."

"What does...'un-der-ra-ted' mean?"

"It means that something doesn't get a lot of appreciation even though it deserves a lot of it."

"Oh." Cobalt jumped again as another orange ghost screeched and appeared practically right in front of Luigi. Silver smirked as he startled he ghost with his flashlight, and then sucked it up into the Poltergust after depleting its heart points. Cobalt cheered as Silver repeated the process with the other ghosts in the room.

"Yay Silver! You're the best!" Cobalt cheered. Silver blushed and rubbed the back of his head a little.

"Ah shucks...Thanks Cobalt." Said spirit girl smiled as Silver continued with the game.

**. . .**

"...and THAT'S why we should help them! I mean, think about it! Should we let these poor souls-no pun intended, mind you-become homeless again? And after dying such a horrible death? We can't allow that! I mean, I know we're no better than the other people who tried to buy the house, but they trust us! Now, we're gonna help these guys, whether you like it or not. Now, any questions?"

Scourge raised his hand.

"Yes Mr. Lean-Mean-n'-Green?"

"Yeah, I have a couple. First off, where the hell did you get the suit?" Sonic looked down at himself to see that he was suddenly dressed as a drill sergeant from the army.

"Uhh...not important..." Sonic said nervously as he ripped the suit off and tossing the remains away, somehow leaving his own outfit completely intact. "What was the other question?"

"Well, I'm not the one to seem like Mr. Negative or anything, but how are we going to pull this off exactly? Unless you have some sort of plan, we're stuck."

"Umm...we...uh...we never thought about a plan..." Ron said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh this is perfect," Scourge mumbled as he faceplamed. Everyone (except for Cobalt, Emi, Eric, Evan and Silver) were assembled in the library, discussing on how they should (or could) rescue the mansion from being sold. However, they made no progress since it was just pointed out that they had no plan to do so.

"We've only got a few hours before Whitney comes to make her rounds on the mansion," Petuni explained. "After that, the auction starts!"

"And there's no doubt that this place is going to be packed tomorrow," Shadow trailed. "It's 1 in the morning now, so we better think of something before dawn."

"But what can we really do?" Cal spoke up. "If Whitney finds out that you guys were in here, she'll call the authorities and out you all in jail!"

"And we can't reveal ourselves either," Peridot added. "So we're just stuck between a rock an' a hard place..."

"Wait, before we do anything, we should start with the will," Scourge said. "I remember what Blue said; he said that Ron told him that Gordon specifically said that the mansion wasn't to be sold in his will. However, when Phil died, it went missin' and our suspect here is Whitney; she hid it somewhere. So here's my proposal; I say we search the house for the will. Gordon has a lawyer, doesn't he? So, if we find the will, give it to his lawyer, and he sees that the mansion can't be sold, then this place will be in the clear! But if Whitney has the will, then we might have a big problem there. Regardless, I say we start here first. Like Petuni said, we only gots a few hours before that ol' bitch comes back. There's a few of us already, even without Silver and those other kids. And with these guys' teleportation ability, it shouldn't be that hard. So, lets search the place for now, and if we don't find anything, then we'll just have to start back at square 1, _if_ it's not too late, that is."

The entire group went completely silent. The spirit-Mobians stared at Scourge while Sonic and Shadow just gaped at him. Scourge became very uncomfortable with all of the staring and stepped back.

"Wh-what? Why are ya'll starin' at me like that? Is there somethin' on my face?"

"Scourge..." Shadow said slowly. "Are...are you ok? Did you bump your head or something...?"

"I'm fine!"

"Scourge's right, fellers," Peridot said. "Our best chance right now is searchin' the mansion and lookin' for that will. And since there's a lot of us right now, we can cover the place faster. I say we give it a shot."

"Yeah! And Sonic's super-duper fast! He'll probably find the will before we do!"

"Oh? You're having a search party without us?" Shadow's ears twitched and he looked around the library.

"Okay, who was that?"

"It was me! Emi!" Suddenly, a girl around Roxy's age appeared in front of everyone; she looked just like the other spirit-Mobians. Deep purple skin, no ears or nose. Short indigo hair, purple corneas, white t-shirt and blue jean shorts and white sandals. Peridot let out a sigh.

"While it's 'bout time that ya showed up, lil' missy!" he said. "Where are ya brothers? Are they 'round?"

"Yup-yup!" Emi replied. At that same moment, two more spirits appeared next to the girl. They looked just like the girl; same colored eyes and hair. However, they wore different colored clothes. The boy on the left of Emi had short hair that covered both of his eyes, but wore a light blue t-shirt and blue jeans, and sandals. The boy to Emi's right had short hair, and wore a red t-shirt and beige khaki pants and sandals also.

"So those are the triplets?" Sonic asked Ron.

"Yup," Ron replied. "But beware of Emi."

"Why?"

"Just trust me on this." Sonic shrugged and said no more on the matter. The boy with hair covering his eyes looked at Sonic, Shadow, and then Scourge.

"So..um...yeah. I'm Eric," he said. "And that other guy over there is my...um...brother, Evan. Emi is our little sister."

"Okay, let's cut straight to the chase," Evan said crossing his arms a little. "You're trying to find the will, right? Well, now that there's more of us, we can cover more ground."

"I got an idea," Petuni said "Why don't we split up into groups of two and search every area in the mansion?"

"That ain't bad, actually," Scourge said thoughtfully as he rubbed his chin. "I mean, I reeeeeally hate to sound like Blue right now, but I believe going with someone else will help a lot."

"But...um...I just a head-count, and we have an...um...uneven amount of people here," Eric said. "We should, um, one group should have three people in it to be fair."

"Petuni, if ya want, ya can come wit' me," Peridot suggested. "Yer always in that kitchen. I don't think ya get out much." Petuni placed her hand on her hip.

"Well _some_one has to cook around here! But...you're right. I'll pair up with you Peridot."

"I'm gonna stay with Sonic!" Ron exclaimed. Orok made another squealing noise before he hopped up on Sonic's shoulder again.

"Hey...um...Shadow, right? Can I...um...pair up with you for now?" Eric asked. Shadow just shrugged.

"Sure." Emi suddenly ran over to Scourge and clutched his arm.

"I'm going with this cutie!" she squealed.

"Yo! Hands off!" Cal exclaimed as he grabbed one of Emi's arm and tried to pull the ghostly girl off of the green menace. Scourge gave Sonic a look that made him look like he was saying "help me." But Sonic ignored him.

Evan faceplamed while Roxy just watched before she blinked.

"Evan, let me go with you," she said, turning towards said boy.

"Fine by me," Evan grunted. "Ok, you guys and pick your areas. Roxy and I are going to search the bar and the surrounding area. So, we'll be right back." And a split second later, both spirits disappeared to search their designated areas.

"Eric, why don't you and I search the library and the other rooms here?" Shadow suggested.

"It's fine by me, really." Eric replied.

"Petuni, I reckon we oughta search the third floor," Peridot said. "There's so much junk in there that Whitney may have taken advantage of that." And then Petuni and Peridot disappeared in the same fashion Evan and Roxy did.

"Ooooh~ Let's search the second floor Mr. Tall Green and Handsome!" Emi squealed before she ran off, pulling poor Scourge with her.

"H-h-h-hey! Leggo!" Scourge cried as he continued to get pulled away.

"EMI! GET BACK HERE!" Cal cried angrily as he followed the other two. Ron shook his head and Sonic grinned.

"Wow," he snickered.

"Anyway, Sonic, let's check the dining room and kitchen since it's the last untouched area." Sonic nodded.

"Alright! Shadow, we'll use our phones as a source of communication. Call us _immediately_ if you find anything."

"Will do." And so, the groups broke apart and search their designated areas to hopefully find the will of Phil Gordon.

**Meanwhile (again)...**

"Yes! I got a strike again!"

"Wow Cobalt. You're actually good at this game." Cobalt danced around Silver as the game reset the bowling pins on the television screen. Now they were playing a game of _Wii Sports_. They had played at least 6 games of bowling by now, and Cobalt was destroying Silver at the game.

"Let's play again!" Cobalt exclaimed.

"Ok, ok..." Silver laughed. "One more game, and then we play tennis."

"Okokok! Your turn!"

"Alright! This time, I won't lose!" Silver gripped his Wiimote tighter and reared it back and prepared to to throw his digital bowling ball...

...but Silver took the game too seriously and he reared the controller back too hard, and the Wiimote flew out of his hands and hit a shelf behind him.

"Uh-oh!" Cobalt giggled as she ran over to where the Wiimote crashed.

"Whoops..." Silver grimaced as he followed Cobalt. The Wiimote hit a shelf filled with a bunch of children's books and board Wiimote was lodged in between a Monopoly game and a _Clifford: The Big Red Dog_ book. Silver too the long white controller from its place, only to make a sheet of folded paper fall from the book. Curious, Silver knelt down and picked up the sheet, unfolded it and examined it.

"What's that, Silver?" Cobalt asked curiously. Silver didn't respond right away; he continued to read the contents of the paper, eyes widening each second. Cobalt noticed Silver's sudden facial changes, so she began to pull at his jacket.

"Silver? Is something wrong?"

"N-no," Silver replied shakily. "But we found something important! This looks like old man Gordon's will!"

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes: <strong>Don't you hate cliffhangers?

I don't have much to say , except for the usual:

I accept reviews and criticism, but not flames people. And I'm not forcing you to review; that's your own choice.

And I'm still blind as a bat-

Rouge: HEY!

Oh, sorry Rouge...*ahem* ignoring that unintentional pun, I'm still lacking some contacts/glasses to help my vision, so I'm gonna miss a few mistakes. But bear with me, I will go back and correct the ones that I can find.

Thanks for reading! See you next time, and God bless!


	7. 7

**Author's Notes:** My God, so sorry for the long wait guys! I had a very bad case of writer's block...

Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>Sonic + Caffeine = Bad Stuff Happening<strong>

"Do you have a girlfriend? If you do, what's her name? Is she cute? Do you like her? Do you want to marry her one day? But if you don't have a girlfriend, do you want one? Wow, look at those scars! How did you get them? They make you look so rugged and cool! Hey, where did you get your jacket? It's so cool! You look like one of those cool guys from the 80s! Is that real gold in your ears? I think guys who wear earrings and eyebrow studs are hot. Hey! You do wear eyebrow studs! You're so gorgeous. I bet girls swoon when you walk in the door! Hey, I never got your name. Can you tell me? You know, you look like a 'Jake' or a 'Scott,' or a 'Blaine'! What's your sign? I'm a Cancer! How old are you? You look around my age, so if we could go out-hey! I just noticed that you all look alike! You're all cute, but you're cuter! But that black hedgehog isn't bad to look at...and that blue hedgehog is just as handsome...Do you carry around a gun? If you do, then you're so badass! But you were already badass from the start."

Scourge banged his head against the wall irritably while Cal searched through the boxes of an old wardrobe. Emi had dragged Scourge back to the door under the staircase, and Scourge ran into the first door he saw just to get away from her. The reason? Well, she talked _way_ too much...If she wasn't already dead, Scourge would have probably killed her.

"So yeah, I never saw a green hedgehog before. Are you pure green? You look like you might be mixed with a bit of lime green...Wow! You're eyes are so pretty! Is that misty blue or icy blue? I can never tell the difference." Cal sighed and rubbed his temples a bit before he closed another wardrobe closet. Even he was getting tired of Emi's constant talking...She's been talking for more than an hour, and it was after 3 in the morning! Both Cal and Scourge were dead tired, but Emi had energy to spare, and she clearly showed it.

Scourge looked over at Cal, and the ghost boy gave him a very apologetic look.

"It. Won't. **Shut. Up**," he whispered to him.

"Emi!"

"Does the blue hedgehog have a-yes Cal?"

"Make yourself useful and help us look. We have a job to do, remember?"

"Oh whoopsie! My bad!" Emi then skipped over to one of the closets and began to search through it aimlessly. Once she was gone, Scourge heaved out a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the floor.

"Thank Chaos..." he sighed. "Is she usually like that?"

"Sadly, yes," Cal replied. "And it's harder to get her to hush, but I had an easier time right now. Trust me, you do **not** want to be around her if it were just a regular day here." Scourge banged his head on a table and actually fell asleep. Cal decided to let him sleep; he could understand his plight, really. The spirit Mobians really couldn't feel tiredness or fatigue since they don't need to sleep on a regular basis as normal living beings do. Plus, anyone who's around Emi for a long time deserves a break.

It was quiet in the wardrobe (with the exception of Scourge's snoring) as the two spirits searched for the evasive will. But it was a lost cause, really. In the back of Cal's mind, he knew that their search was all for nothing. He knew better; he knew Whitney wouldn't be dumb enough to leave the will in the mansion. She probably ripped it or burned it to make sure no one would ever find it. But he wasn't going to give up; none of them were. He wanted to believe that there was some hope that they could save the mansion. But how was everyone else fairing?

**Meanwhile...**

"Soooooniiiiiic! C'moooooon! Waaaaaake uuuuuuup!" Ron and Orok shook a familiar blue hedgehog furiously. The three of them had went into the kitchen to search for any clues, and they were having no luck what so ever. Sonic had became exhausted since he hasn't been to sleep all night, so he figured that if he ate something, it would keep him awake.

Unfortunately for them, Sonic's plan backfired greatly.

The blue blur had consumed some chips earlier, and it was just seconds later before he collapsed and went to sleep. Since then, Ron and Orok had spent the last 20 minutes trying to wake him up. And they both failed miserably. Eventually, Ron stood up and sighed; Sonic was out, and he showed no signs of waking up. So, now it was time for plan B.

"PEEEEEEETUUUUUUUUNIIIIIIIIIII!" On cue, said spirit, accompanied with Peridot, appeared in front of Ron.

"What is it, son? What's wit' all th' hollerin?" Peridot asked. Ron just made a slight face before pointing at the 5 foot hedgehog sprawled out on the floor, snoring.

"Oh dear," Petuni sighed as she went over and knelt down next to him. "I was afraid this was going to happen." At that moment, a few more people appeared in the kitchen. Cal and Emi appeared next to Peridot; Cal had Scourge (who was still asleep) over his shoulder, looking a tad agitated. Eric appeared next to Cal and Emi; he was carrying Shadow the same way Cal was carrying Scourge. And, just like the two hedgehogs before him, Shadow was fast asleep, and was not about to wake up anytime soon.

Petuni looked at each of them before she facepalmed.

"Honestly?" she said to herself.

"I don't know what happened to him," Eric said as he set Shadow down on the floor. "He just...um...went to sleep."

"Emi talked Scourge into hibernation," Cal grunted, earning him a glare from said spirit girl. "We tried waking him up, but he won't respond at all."

"Set them down," Petuni said. "I have something that will fix them right up. Just give me a few minutes." Cal did as he was told and placed Scourge on the floor while Petuni busied herself with collecting various pots and ingredients. What kind of remedy would she cook up to wake up the three sleeping hedgehogs?

**. . .**

Cobalt and Silver slept peacefully, completely oblivious to what was going on with their friends. After finding the will, Silver decided to go find his friends to show them his find, but Cobalt complained about getting tired, so they both went into the nearest bedroom to take a quick catnap.

The bedroom itself looked like it could have belonged to any young girl; pink and light purple colored walls, toys and stuffed animals as far as the eye could see, and toy princess accessories were lined on the dressers. The bed was a bit big for just one little girl to sleep in; it even came with its own canopy and pink see-through curtains. You could say that it was the dream room for any young girl, and it was.

Cobalt was snuggled up to Silver, who was sleeping as well. Silver noticed that he was getting a little tired himself, so he decided to accompany Cobalt on the bed and sleep as well. The will that Silver found hours before was folded neatly on the dresser next to them.

It was minutes later when Cobalt started to whimper and squirm in her sleep. She was having a nightmare; the fire...that horrible, horrible fire...It was coming back to her. It may have been a dream, or nightmare, but she could still feel the pain of being burned alive. She could still hear the horrified screams of those who perished with her. She could still see the flames engulfing her in what seemed like an never ending hell.

Cobalt began to toss and turn as her whimpers began to turn into soft pitiful sobs. This woke up Silver, and he looked over to see Cobalt had tears streaming down her cheeks, even though she was still asleep. Silver hated to see his young friend distraught, so he hugged her and talked softly.

"Cobalt, it's ok," he whispered. "It's just a nightmare. Nothing's happening to you...You're safe. I'm here." Cobalt stopped squirming almost immediately. Just hearing the sound of Silver's voice put her at ease. Because she knew the silvery hedgehog would protect her, would comfort her, would always be there for her.

Her lips cracked into a soft smiled before she snuggled up against the silvery hedgehog, nightmare free. Silver smiled to himself before he laid back, closed his eyes, and drifted off back to sleep.

**. . .**

"Okay, here we go..." Petuni poured a deep brown liquid into the final mug before she sighed and wiped her hands on her robe. "This is my strongest tea and coffee combination. It can wake anything and anyone up just by the smell."

"No tellin' what it'd do for th' fellers if they actually drunk the stuff," Peridot said. "Ya sure it won't make them as giddy as a squirrel huntin' for nuts?"

"If it doesn't actually make them nuts," Cal remarked.

"I know what I'm doing!" Petuni said as she put the three mugs on a tray and carried it over to the three sleeping hedgehogs. "Besides, they're not drinking the whole cup. Just a little bit would do them just fine."

"What's in that stuff, anyway?" Roxy asked curiously.

"Green tea, regular grounded coffee beans, cinnamon, three sugar cubes and brown sugar." Ron raised one of his eyebrows.

"I'm not sure about all of that caffeine and sugar, Petuni," he said honestly. "If they drink that, then won't they be very hyper?" Petuni shrugged a little.

"I'd rather have them hyper than sleeping on my kitchen floor."

"...Touché ." The spirit-cook gave Ron a sort of sideways smile before she took one of the cups and knelt down next to Sonic. Gently opening his mouth, she poured half of the deep brown liquid down his throat, holding the blue blur's head for support so he wouldn't choke. She repeated the process with Scourge and Shadow while the other watched. When done, Petuni put the cups back on the trays and put them on the counter to be washed later on. Everyone watched for a few seconds before the ebony one groaned and sat up. The peridot colored hedgehog followed soon after, but he yawned.

"I had a dream I had the best coffee in the world..." Shadow mumbled absentmindedly.

"Really? So did I," Scourge said.

"Oh, it worked!" Roxy cheered. Shadow raised an eyebrow at said girl.

"What worked? And why are we in the kitchen? And on the floor? How come everyone's around us? Why is Sonic sleeping on the floor? Why aren't we in the bar?"

"You, Scourge and Sonic passed out while we were searching for the will so we brought you guys in here and Petuni made some sort of coffee-tea stuff that supposedly wakes anyone up no matter how sleepy they are and now we're waiting for Sonic to wake up." Eric explained in one breath. Scourge gave him a look, but Shadow's eyes suddenly widened.

"Petuni," he said slowly "there wasn't any caffeine in that stuff when you gave it to Sonic, right...?" Said ghostly woman tilted her head at the ebony hedgehog.

"It's supposed to have caffeine in it," she said innocently.

"Oh dear Chaos..."

"What's up with ya, Stripes?" Scourge asked.

"Sonic does not handle caffeine well..." the ebony one explained grimly as he looked over at the blue blur, who was still sound asleep. "I remember the morning after we had just moved into our apartment, Sonic saw me drinking a cup of coffee and asked me for some since he never had any. Of course, I humored him and gave him some...but I regret it to this day..."

"What happened?" Peridot asked curiously. Shadow rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.

"W-well, let's just say he went on a Super Sonic Sugar Rush. He was so hyper that...well, we couldn't contain him at all. I remember when he managed to get on the freeway in literally five seconds and ran around on the ramps. He was not trying to avoid the oncoming traffic at all." Petuni gasped and placed her hands over her mouth with a horrified look on her face.

"Goodness! He didn't get hit by a car, did he?" she asked.

"Chaos forbid if he gotten ran over by a semi..." Eric said wincing. Shadow gave them both a shaky smile.

"The question should be did Sonic hit the car..." Everyone in the room looked at Shadow as if he had two heads.

"The hell's that supposed to mean, Stripes?" Scourge asked.

"Let me rephrase that; instead of the cars hitting Sonic, it was vice versa."

"So...yer sayin' Sonic hit th' cars instead?" Peridot asked. Shadow nodded slowly.

"He went straight through them," the ebony one said. At that moment, Orok suddenly let out a cry as he began to prance around Sonic. Everyone looked to see that Sonic was sitting up and wide awake, but he looked...odd. First off, his usual grin/smile was a lot wider than usual, and it looked like he was either twitching or shaking, or probably both. Shadow immediately got to his feet and literally ran out of the kitchen.

"I know you guys are already dead-no offense-but if you want to live than run like all hell and keep your distance!" he cried. The spirit Mobians seemed to have followed Shadow's advice, since they gave each other worried glances before disappearing instantly. Orok sensed something was wrong with his new master, so he went over to Scourge and hid behind him while shaking. However, said green hedgehog didn't seem what was the big deal was. Everyone gets a sugar rush every once in a while; he even believed Shadow was exaggerating with that little story anyway.

Shrugging a bit, Scourge got up from the floor and coolly walked out of the kitchen with Orok closely behind him. However, when he opened the door, Sonic ran right past him and stood in front of him, smiling from ear to ear (literally). Scourge made a face at his blue counterpart and tried to move around him, but Sonic blocked him each time, his smile never faltering.

"Yo, Blue, you're blockin' my exit. So move," he said. But Sonic didn't move, or blink. He just stood there, staring at Scourge, with that wide smile that was starting t freak the peridot one out a bit. Sonic remained that way for a few seconds before he suddenly grabbed Scourge, put him in a headlock and gave him a nuggie.

"Duuuuuuuude! It's my lil' douche of a bro!" he exclaimed.

"Get the hell offa me!" Scourge yelled while trying to push Sonic off. "I ain't neva your brother!" Orok made a little whimpering sound before he ran out of the dining room, going who knows where.

Eventually after a lot of struggling, Scourge eventually got out of Sonic's grip. The green hedgehog stumbled back as he stared at Sonic with anger blazing in his eyes, ready to give him a good beating or two. But he was a little disturbed to see that the blue blur was doubling over with laughter; it was really hard to tell if he was laughing at him or if he was just laughing because he was insane. Scourge raised an eyebrow as he watched Sonic curiously, waiting for him to calm down. Eventually, Sonic stopped laughing, now he was grinning while jumping a little.

"There's somethin' wrong with ya..." Scourge mumbled to himself.

"Hey, hey, hey Scourge."

"What?"

"Why are ya green? How come ya dyed your fur? How come you don't look like me anymore? How come you look like a recolor of me? How come your such an asshole? Are you and Fiona gonna get married and have mutant-hedgehog-fox-babies?" Scourge just gaped at Sonic.

"Get away from me, man. I don't know what Petuni put in that stuff she-"

"Duuuuuuude...ya know what? Ya remind me of weed!"

"Are you high?"

"No silly! If I was high, I would be on the ceiling by now!" Scourge made a face, but he finally managed to walk passed Sonic and head out of the dining room, but Sonic skipped after him (no joke) while grinning.

"I wonder where they went...and where the hell Silver is," Scourge wondered out loud as he wandered around the foyer.

"Oh my Chaos!" Sonic randomly yelled. "I just remembered something important!"

"You're a virgin?"

"No I banged Fiona behind your back and never told you!" (He said this very quickly.)

"WHAT? !"

"Anyway I just remembered we're supposed to be looking for a thing! So let's go find the thing! I bet I'll find it first! Oh jeez! I got the best idea ever! Let's race to see who'll find the thing first! Ready?"

"Blue-"

"1, 2, 3, GO!" And then Sonic sped off up the stairs, but came back down two seconds later and went into the door under the staircase, leaving a strong wind gust behind him at his wake. Scourge, who was clearly stunned by Sonic's behavior, remained standing where he was, staring at the door where Sonic disappeared from. It was quiet for a few moments; the only thing that could be heard was the occasional creak of the house.

"...Is he gone?" Emi's voice asked.

"Yup," Scourge said, putting his hands in his pockets. The spirit Mobians, along with Shadow and Orok, appeared around Scourge a split second later. Shadow stared at the door where Sonic went into and sighed before he face palmed.

"He's going to be like that all day..." he said silently.

"Oh me," Petuni groaned. "That was my secret recipe. He might be like that for the next twenty-four hours..."

"Oh that's perfect," Eric said. "So now we gotta deal with a hyped up hedgehog?"

"Looks dat way fellers and ladies," Peridot said. "But we better watch 'em. We don't wanna have 'im hurtin' himself or anyone else."

"With a head as big as his, that might be impossible," Scourge remarked, causing Shadow to snicker a bit. Ron opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off when the door began to make rattling sounds. Everyone looked at the door to see that it was indeed shaking, and the knobs were moving. Shadow immediately looked over at the nearest clock and saw that it was close to six. Time has ran out for them. At that very moment, Sonic ran into the foyer and began to point at the door while jumping up and down.

"She's here! She's here!" he babbled. "The wicked witch of the west! She's here!"

"Blue, if you don't-" Scourge was cut off when the door slowly began to open.

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes: <strong>I love cliffhangers. The reason for this is because it tortures you guys so! Mwahahahaha!

*ahem* Anyway, I'm sorry if this story seems short, but it's coming to a close. But it might be a few more chapters before it ends.

I went back and corrected any mistakes that were present, but if I missed any, I offer my sincerest apologies, but will correct those I missed as well. It looks like I won't be getting any contacts soon, and there's no way I'm gonna relive my painful elementary school days by wearing glasses. Yes, I never let that go, and no I do not have issues. Also, I changed Peridot's speech a bit to make him sound more like a country person, or just someone from the south.

Review if you want to, but I just ask that you don't be mean, and no flaming. I know I'm not the best writer in the world, but hey, I'm trying right? Anyhoo...

Thanks for reading guys! See ya next time, and God bless (and Mother's Day is coming up! Make sure you let your moms know you care~)!


	8. 8

**Author's Notes:** This might be short again. Also, I apologize for the profanity if it's too much for you.

* * *

><p><strong>Knock, Knock<strong>

Everyone froze as the two doors opened. They had ran out of time to find the will and help their new friends. It looked like the end of their quest, and the end of the spirit Mobians' freedom here.

...Of course, that what you expected to hear if Sonic wasn't so hyper off of sugar. He immediately ran over to the door and slammed it shut, and also locking both doors. Hearing the doors slamming snapped the others out of their shocked trance and went into action.

"We gotta keep that wench out there!" Shadow exclaimed.

"Oh, I can help!" Emi suddenly cried. "I can keep the door shut by using my spiritual telekinesis to keep the doors shut! That's what I did when I locked you guys in here!" Everyone's eyes suddenly bulged out as they glanced at Emi. The spirit Mobians looked at her with shock and disappointment, while out heroes glared at her with a mix of fury and...well, shock. Now realizing that she let the cat out of the bag, Emi immediately covered her mouth and back away from the group.

"Oops..." she whispered.

"You...did...**WHAT? !"** Scourge nearly shrieked.

"So, you were the one who locked us in here to begin with?" Shadow demanded. "If you weren't already dead, I'd..."

"She needs a spanking!" Sonic randomly shouted, gaining him weird glances from the others. "...What? She's a kid! Isn't that what parents did to punish their children?"

"You...just...keep your mouth shut..." Scourge sighed, face palming in the process. Ignoring Sonic's random outburst, the other spirit Mobians looked at Emi with hurt eyes.

"Emi," Petuni said softly "please tell me you're joking. You honestly didn't trap these poor young men, did you?" Emi just lowered her head and twiddled her thumbs, her eyes now glazed. Peridot frowned deeply and crossed his arms.

"Emi Valentine Canary," he said slowly, the anger in his voice was very clear. "What in Chaos' name were ya thinkin'? Ya can't just trap a bunch o' strangers in our house! Have you went bonkers? !" Emi shivered as she looked up at Peridot, tears now streaming down her face.

"B-but I-"

"No 'buts'!" Peridot exclaimed. "What ya did is unforgivable! Yer grounded fer three weeks!" At that moment, Emi couldn't take it anymore and burst into pitiful tears. Peridot almost never yelled at any of them, even when he was angry. This was the first time in a long time that he actually yelled at her, or any of the children, for that matter. Peridot was known for his somewhat calm matter, even when under pressure, but it was predicted that the stress of failing at their task and possibly losing the house put its toll on him, and he cracked. But only a little bit.

"Now Peridot," Petuni said, placing her hand on Peridot's shoulder calming him, albeit slightly. "Perhaps you're a little harsh on the girl?"

"Whaddya mean I'm bein' harsh? She can't keep doin' this to unsuspectin' people who come in here! What if she trapped th' wrong people?"

"I understand that dearly. But think about it; if Emi didn't trap the four of them (minus one) in here, then we wouldn't have had anyone help us keep the house, nor would we have made new friends."

"She has a point," Cal spoke up. "I know I'm not supposed to butt into grown-up affairs, but these guys are good guys, y'know? I mean, if they hadn't come in here in the first place, we would probably be out on the streets, homeless again. And...to tell the truth, I'm glad I met Scourge. Even though he may not appear to be a guy like Sonic, I still see him as a friend, 'cause we're alike, y'know? And we would have never gotten this far without 'em."

"Yeah! And if Emi didn't keep them in here, my dream of meeting Sonic would have never come true!" Ron said.

"That's-a me!" Sonic called, waving his hand in the air in the background. Everyone decided to ignore him this time, because that was a bit random to begin with. I mean, we all knew he was, right?

"And...it has been a while since we made contact with other beings," Roxy added. "Ever since Whitney put the house for sale, we've been lonely and pining for contact with the living. No one hardly acknowledges us anymore."

"So, all in all," Evan said "what she did made a vital turning point in our lives. I mean, if it wasn't for them, we would still be sitting around, waiting to be put out on the streets. So, in a way, we should be thanking Emi more than we should be thanking those three."

"Yeah, and um...I believe punishing Emi for this isn't very fair, though what she did was indeed wrong...You might be...um...you might be taking this a bit too far." Peridot looked at each of the spirits, and then at a weeping Emi, and sighed.

"Y'all right..." he said before going over to Emi and patting her head, making her stop crying for a moment as she gazed up at him. "You stop dat cryin' now, Emi. I ain't mad no more. But ya gotta promise me that ya won't do this again now, ya hear?" Emi sniffled as she nodded.

"I-I'm sorry...I just thought that maybe-"

"I know, I know. But yer still grounded, but only fer a week this time. Understood?"

"Yes sir..." Peridot smiled as he helped Emi to her feet. Shadow and Scourge were no longer angry at Emi, but they were slightly irritated by her actions. Even so, they couldn't stay mad at the girl.

"Yo, Emi," Scourge asked "how long can ya keep that door under lock an' key?"

"Well, I kept it shut for ten hours ever since you guys came in," she explained while wiping away any stray tears she might have missed. "And since we don't really need a lot of sleep like you do, I can keep it shut for that amount of time again, as long as I keep my focus on the door." The door rattled again as the person on the other side of the door tried to break through. Sonic had his feet firmly on the ground, but he wasn't sure how long he could keep it shut.

"Wow, she really wants to get through!" Sonic exclaimed. "Someone, quick! Go get a harpoon!"

"The hell are you gonna do with a harpoon?" Shadow asked.

"...No idea." Shadow rolled his eyes before Emi's eyes glittered for a brief moment as she focused her spiritual energy on the door to keep it shut. Sonic suddenly felt a wave of what felt like magical energy; it was the same energy he felt when they were first trapped into the mansion and when they tried to open the door during that time. He knew he didn't have to keep holding the door any longer, and backed away.

"Alright," Shadow sighed. "Now we have a little more time to find the will."

"But we gotta be quick," Evan said. "Emi probably can't hold the door for a long time this time, so we better move quickly."

"Hey guys! Guess what?" Sonic shouted while jumping around the group.

"What now Sonic?" Shadow asked.

"I found out Scourge's first name!" Scourge's eyes widened as he turned towards his blue counterpart, who was now holding an open black leather wallet in his hands. Panicking, Scourge patted his back pocket and gasped.

"Isn't that kind of irrelevant?" Ron asked no one in particular. So in return, no one answered.

"Ya bastard!" he screamed. "Ya stole my wallet! Give it back!" Sonic stuck his tongue out at Scourge as said green hedgehog began to chase him around the foyer. Shadow, who would usually be annoyed by such childish behavior-especially since they had a very important job to do at the moment-decided to make the most of it since he was curious on what was Scourge's real name was. I mean, come on, who would name their kid Evil-Sonic?

Hey, Sonic!" Shadow called while waving his hands in the air. "Pass it over here!"

"NO!" Sonic smirked at Scourge before he threw the wallet over to Shadow, and he caught it swiftly before Scourge could even get over to him, even while running at his full speed.

"Don't even think 'bout it, Stripes..." Scourge growled. Shadow, for once, smirked, and opened the wallet. Scourge was about to jump on him and reclaim his wallet and his biggest secret, but Sonic beat him to the punch by pushing him to the floor and pining him down.

"Do it do it do it do it!" Sonic chanted.

"Noooooooo! Have mercy! Don't do it, Stripes! I'll do anythin'! I swear! Just don't reveal my real name!" Shadow's smirk grew wider as he waved the wallet in front of Scourge face.

"Anything?" the ebony hedgehog sang.

"Anything!" Scourge cried.

"Well...my terms are that you'll pay the rent for the next two months."

"Deal!"

"And mow the lawn and clean the yard."

"I can deal with that."

"No flings for sex for those two months."

"...I can-"

"No booze, no smoking."

"That's goin' too far!"

"Clean your apartment completely."

"No way!"

"And find a job."

"...Hell, to the no."

"Well, you had your chance."

"Wait, I change my mind!" Too late for that, O' Green One. Shadow opened the wallet and read over Scourge's ID. After a few seconds, the widest smile you would see on Shadow's face had spread across his lips.

"My, my, my..." the ebony hedgehog laughed.

"You wouldn't dare..." Scourge sneered. Shadow chuckled before he closed the wallet.

"That's enough, Sonic," Shadow said. "I think _Oliver_ might be getting uncomfortable now." Sonic couldn't take it anymore, and he ended up bursting into laughter as he rolled off of Scourge and rolled around on the floor, literally rolling on the floor laughing. Even Shadow couldn't control himself and ended up doubling over with laughter as well. Even Emi and Roxy laughed, but the others just giggled and snickered. Scourge glared at Sonic and Shadow once he was on his feet; his cheeks were red from anger and embarrassment.

"This guy's name is Oliver!" Shadow laughed. "That's rich!"

"Scourge...I thought you said your name was Maurice?" Cal asked, trying hard not to snicker.

"That's my middle name! He stole it!" Sonic exclaimed while rolling on the floor. "Ow, my side's beginning to hurt!"

"Aw, Scourge, don't feel bad," Petuni said. "Oliver's a cute name!"

"I hate you both," Scourge seethed. "If you tell this to anyone else..."

"Our lips are sealed," Shadow said once his laughing fit was over. "Promise. If you think I'm lying, then may Chaos, or even Enerjak, strike me down."

**. . .**

Somewhere in a realm far from Mobius, the spirits of Chaos and Enerjak were playing playing a game of Go-Fish. The watery creature suddenly lifted his head from his hand of cards and gazed around before looking over at the godly echidna.

"Hey, Jak," Chaos asked "Shadow just told a lie about revealing Scourge's real name. Should we strike him down?"

"Nah," Enerjak replied, shuffling his cards a bit. "The guy kinda deserves it."

"Oh, okay. Got any Spades?"

"Go-Fish."

"Goddammit! You always beat me!"

"Not my fault you suck at this game. Got any Queens?" Chaos mumbled something nasty under his breath before he presented said card.

"This is the last game, and then I gotta go."

"Going home?"

"Yup. Tikal gave me a curfew after that recent accident."

"Heh, mama's boy."

"You hush!"

"Very well. Got any Diamonds?"

"Go-Fish."

**. . .**

"Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"I thought I heard-nevermind."

"Anyway," Peridot said "where should we start lookin' again?"

"We practically looked everywhere in the last course of hours!" Roxy exclaimed. "There's no where else to look!"

"But we haven't found Silver or the last spirit either..." Shadow mused. "Where do you think they should be?"

"Uh, guys?" Cal said uneasily. "We have something else to worry about here..."

"What?" Cal suddenly pointed at the door that led to the dining room and kitchen. Everyone followed his gaze to see a human woman standing in front of the open door, glaring at each of them. The woman appeared to be in her early twenties. She wasn't that pretty; chubby, a bit short, pock marks decorated her face, sharp brown eyes, and her hair was a dirty brown and looked like it hasn't been washed in weeks. She was wearing a simple gray woman suit, and black heels.

The woman looked at the three hedgehogs before her eyes landed on the spirit Mobians, and she scowled. The younger Mobians hid behind Peridot and Petuni, but Peridot glared at the woman with a burning hatred in his eyes.

"Great. First I couldn't get in, and just when I thought I got rid of you pests, you go ahead and invite a bunch of rats in here!" she seethed. Shadow made a face.

"Well, aren't you a bitch?"

"Excuse me?"

"Goddamn you're ugly!" Scourge exclaimed, looking over the lady a dozen times. "No wonder you're a gold-digger. No man would want ya if ya looked like that. Ever heard of two things called a diet and Proactive?"

"That's Whitney," Ron whispered to Shadow. "She's a real meanie..."

"Figured..." Shadow whispered back. "But I thought she would be a blonde to be honest."

"Why don't ya do us a favor and get the hell out!" Peridot screamed, making everyone, including Whitney, jump at his sudden outburst. "We never did anythin' to ya! Why do ya gotta be such an ass to us, huh? It ain't our problem that you were Phil's least favorite kid once yer siblings were born and I could understand that! Yer just a good-fer-nothin' brat!"

"At least I didn't burn in an orphanage," Whitney remarked, making Peridot's face flare up with rage.

"I know ya ain't gonna take that, Peridot," Scourge scoffed. "C'mon, you're a ghost-sorta. Go up to 'er and knock her out!"

"Don't instigate, Scourge." Shadow warned.

"I ain't a woman-beater, son," Peridot said "but I'll make an exception!"

"No! I got a better idea!" Sonic exclaimed, running in front of everyone and pointing directly at the chubby woman. "She knows where the will is! Get her!" Everyone was keen on that idea, and everyone in the foyer immediately rushed Whitney. Said woman's eyes widened as she let out a scream and tried to run off, but Sonic and Peridot were the first the knock her to the ground and pin her there.

"Quick! Get a rope and a chair!" Sonic cried. "We'll tie her to it and make her talk!"

"The best idea that has ever came out of your mouth," Shadow said. "Emi, Roxy, can you two find a rope?"

"You bet we can!" Roxy replied.

"Then I'll get the chair! The rest of you hold her down!" Shadow demanded before he ran into the dining room. At that same moment, Scourge and the rest of the spirit Mobians dog-piled onto Whitney, adding more weight and keeping her down on the floor.

"Unhand me this instant!" Whitney screeched. "Do you know who you're dealing with? !"

"Yeah, a no-good stuck-up wench!" Peridot growled. At that moment, Emi and Roxy reappeared with three jump ropes, and Shadow came out of the dining room with a chair.

"Alright, get her up," Shadow said. "It's time we make her talk."

"Hehehe, this is gonna be fun..." Scourge grinned while rubbing his hands together. "Torture is right up my alley."

"We'll cut off her fingers, slit her throat, chain her to a wall, and make her watch all of the Twilight movies!" Sonic randomly shouted before he began to cackle like a maniac. Everyone stared at him for a long time before Shadow face palmed...again.

"Petuni, whatever you put in that stuff, never make it again, or better yet, never give it to Sonic..." the ebony one sighed.

"Done," Petuni groaned before she helped Peridot get Whitney in the chair, and then Scourge began to tie her up afterwards. But whether or not Whitney was going to talk wasn't for certain; maybe she would, maybe she wouldn't. Who knows? She probably doesn't know where the will is in the first place. Buy hey, you never know.

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes: <strong>I think the ending is a bit crappy.

I'm going to try and update every other day like I promised, but this is almost done, so don't count on getting anymore chapters.

Anyways, you guys know what I'm about to say here; Review if you want to, but no flames. I accept criticism though.

I went back and corrected everything that I could find, but if I missed some, I apologize.

Thanks for reading everyone! See you next time, and God bless you all!


	9. 9

**Author's Notes:** This took all day D:

* * *

><p><strong>Battle Royale...For A Piece of Paper...<strong>

Whitney was tied tightly onto the dining room chair, her hands forced together by another rope, and feet her confined by even more rope. The room was pitch black, except for the small lamp sitting next to her which was shining a light on her face.

Sonic suddenly stepped out of the darkness of the room, now dressed in a black suit and black sunglasses, looking like a reject from either The Matrix or Men in Black. And he was holding a small baseball bat (which was plastic, by the way).

"Alright Whitney," he said in a low and threatening voice while circling the woman and patting his bat bat in his hand. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Just tell us where ya hid the stuff and we'll let ya go without a scratch..." Whitney just scoffed and turned her nose up at te blue blur.

"I have no idea what you're talking about you freak!" she said.

"Better watch your mouth when talkin' to me, sweetie," Sonic said, now standing in front of her. "I'll ask again; where is it? !"

"Where's what?"

"The stuff!"

"What stuff? !"

"The stuff from the thing with the other stuff!"

"What the hell are you talking about? !"

"Sonic, what are you doing?" The room suddenly grew bright, revealing that Sonic and Whitney were in the kitchen. Shadow, Scourge, and the rest of the spirit Mobians stood in the doorway, glancing at Sonic with curious, yet weird, glances.

"Get out! you're ruining the scene!" Sonic whined.

"Son, why are ya wearin' Phil's old suit?" Peridot asked. "Her wore that just hours before he died." Sonic's pupil's suddenly shrank as he looked down at himself.

"AAAARRRRGGGGH! I'M IN DEAD MANS'S CLOTHES! I FEEL SO DIRTY!" Sonic yelled before he ran out of the kitchen screaming about urgently needing a shower, and dropping his bat in the process. Scourge watched Sonic for a bit, before he turned towards Whitney, and then back at the door where Sonic disappeared from.

"Hmm...I'm gonna have to miss a bit of this torture session to get a little revenge," he said, mostly to himself than anyone else. "I'll be right back." With that said, Scourge sped off in hot pursuit of Sonic, plotting whatever he could do to him that would get his revenge. Shadow shook his head before he walked up to Whitney while holding Orok.

"Alright, let's start this over, shall we?" he said while Orok crawled up on his shoulders, snarling at Whitney. "Where's the will? We know you had it and we know you're the main reason it went missing. We know all you want is money so you're selling the mansion. But before we get to the will, I have something to ask you; why are you selling this place so cheaply?"

"It's because of those freaks!" Whitney sneered, regarding the spirits. "Ever since they found out the mansion was for sale, they've been scaring away my clients! At first, you had to pay more than a million for this place, but I went down on the price because people were so scared to come here! I was about to come in and exterminate them for good, but then I saw you three snooping around, so I had to change my plans! But now I have a better idea...When I get out of this, I'll call animal control and have you rats locked up in a zoo where you belong! And those freaks can be sold to a circus as far as I'm concerned!"

Shadow made a slight face before turning towards Orok.

"She's a meanie, isn't she?" he asked a little reptilian. Orok growled and nodded. At that moment, Evan stepped forward and tapped Shadow's shoulder. When the ebony hedgehog looked down, Evan motioned for him to bend down. when he did so, Evan whispered some very important information into Shadow's ear. Whitney, who was suspicious of this, raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. She was too busy trying to use her nails to cut through the ropes (which was a lost cause; I forgot to mention that the ropes that they used to tie her up were rubber jump ropes). After a few moments, Evan finished whispering and moved away; Shadow stood up straight and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"...And you think it would work?" he suddenly asked Evan.

"Positive," the spirit replied. "I'm telling you, she'll break." Shadow pondered on it for a while longer before he looked over at Orok again, who nodded at him, and then looked back down at Evan. He grinned evilly before nodding at the boy, and Evan grinned before he disappeared, going to get who knows what.

"Where is he going?" Whitney asked.

"Just to fetch me a little something is all..." Shadow replied coolly while looking at his nails (or claws, rather). "I hear you adore jewelry, hm?"

"Yeah, and what if I do?"

"Well...I think it would be better if you see for yourself." At that same moment, Evan reappeared with a moderately large silver jewelry box. Whitney's eyes widen as she watched Evan and Shadow carefully.

"This is it," Evan said as he handed the box to Shadow.

"Does it have everything in here?" the ebony one asked.

"Everything."

"Good." Shadow placed the box on the counter and went through it; Orok climbed up on his shoulders again so he could get a good look at what was the contents of the box also.

"What are you doing?" Whitney asked, eyeing Shadow. Said hedgehog ignored her, but then he suddenly whistled before he pulled out a necklace that was out of gold, lined with small diamonds.

"Hmm...this is real gold, yes?"

"Put that down! Do you know how expansive that was?" Whitney exclaimed. Shadow suddenly developed a wicked grin on his face as he pulled the necklace with both of his hands, and effortlessly tore it apart, making bits and pieces of gold and diamond scatter across the floor. Whitney cringed as she watched her precious jewelry disappeared before her very eyes, but she tried to act like she didn't care.

"I-I didn't care about that anyway! It was tacky!"

"Oh my, are these rubies?" Shadow asked mockingly as he pulled out a silver bracelet lined with rubies from the box.

"N-no...not that...it was a _Jared_ exclusive!"

"Really now?" Shadow turned towards the small dragon on his shoulder and smirked. "Orok? Care to do the honors?" Orok let out a squeal before he breathed out a ball of purple flames onto the bracelet. Whitney gasped as the piece of jewelry melted into nothing but shiny ashes.

"T-that's ok! That was out of style anyway!"

"What about these emerald earrings?"

"Th-those...my husband gave me those..."

Burned.

"We got a divorce six years ago anyway!"

"And the sapphires?"

"..."

"Orok, dispose of-"

"NO! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THEY COST? !" Well, they're worth nothing now since it became a puddle of molten metal thanks to Orok's fire breath. Shadow began to rub his chin as Whitney began to struggle in her chair, desperately trying to get out of her confines.

"Mmm...this is getting boring. And there's a lot of jewels in this box...Rouge will kill me, but they'll have to go."

"You wouldn't dare..."

"Ohhhh Orok, do me one last favor?"

"NOOO!"

"Get rid of the box and its contents?" Whitney screamed as Orok hopped off of Shadow's shoulder and landed on the counter. The baby dragon inhaled air before he breathed out through his mouth. More purple flames landed on the silvery box and it instantly combusted into flames. Whitney let out a loud and long wail of despair as she hopped in the chair and ended up tipping herself over.

"I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT IS! I NEVER KNEW PHILLIP HAD A WILL IN THE FIRST PLACE!" the woman cried as tears came to her eyes.

"Yer lyin'!" Peridot exclaimed. "Th' only reason it went missin' was because of yer meddlin'! Ya hid the will when you found out Phil wrote down that the mansion couldn't be sold!"

"I don't even know what you're talking about!" Whitney screamed. "I never knew that old buzzard had a will, and if I did, I would have gotten rid of it a long time ago!"

Shadow hummed a bit as Orok took his place back on the ebony one's shoulder. He wasn't sure if Whitney was telling the truth, but the way she's acting about it has him thinking. Still, he wasn't sure he could entirely trust what she was saying; she was probably acting so she could get them to release her, and that's when she'd call the authorities on them and have them all locked up. Also, he didn't know what kind of torture to put the woman through to make her talk by this point. What could he do now?

"It smells like burnt money in here." Shadow turned to his left to see that Sonic was standing next to him...naked.

"Sonic..." Shadow asked slowly while looking at his blue counterpart carefully. "Where are your clothes...?"

"Scourge took them, me thinks," Sonic replied, smiling for some reason.

"Why is that animal nude?" Whitney demanded. "That's indecent exposure, and that's against the law!"

"It's not indecent exposure because my fur covers my privates," Sonic said matter-of-factly. Scourge then came into the kitchen while holding Sonic's clothes.

"Yo, Blue, ya forgot somethin'," the green one said before he tossed the clothes to the blue one. "Now hurry up an' get dressed. You shouldn't be walking around with your wang-wait, where'd it go?"

"Where'd what go?"

"Yer...uh..."

"Ohhhhh _that_? Me thinks you stole it because you had penis envy!" Everyone in the room raised their eyebrows at the same time.

"Blue, I can't steal yer wang without cuttin' it off, an' you would've known by now if I had stolen it or not. And what would I do with it, anyway? I can't reattach it to myself!" Shadow face palmed yet again.

"Sonic, your penis has retracted itself. In anthropomorphic hedgehogs like ourselves, it retracts itself into the stomach area of your abdomen when it's not being used." Sonic and Scourge stared at Shadow with their eyes widened.

"Are you sayin' my wang is in my stomach right now?" Scourge asked with a disgusted look on his face, causing Shadow to raise his eyebrow.

"You didn't know that?"

"No!"

"How could you not know about your own anatomy?"

"Well I didn't know it was in my stomach when I ain't usin' it! This is why I wear pants now!"

"And what were you doing when you just ran around with nothing but your jacket, boots and gloves on a few years back?"

"The same thing you, Blue and Silver did."

"Which was?"

"Runnin' 'round nude."

"So what's the problem now?"

"I freaked out one day when I didn't see it."

"It was there, trust me." During this conversation (whom the spirit Mobians were interested in the topic for some odd reason), Whitney somehow found her way out of the ropes and was almost done undoing the confines on her feet. Luckily, Orok noticed what was going on and roared, alerting the others. But by now, Whitney was already on her feet.

"Heh, too late freaks!" she said triumphantly before she took out her cell phone. "I'm calling the authorities on all of you right-" She was cut off when Orok tackled her to the ground and began to claw and bite at her legs. Upon seeing this, Sonic was the next to jump into action.

"NOOO! DO NOT HARM MY PRECIOUS!" he randomly screamed before pouncing on Whitney and wreslting her to the floor.

"Ewwwww! There's a naked rat on me!" the woman shrieked. Everyone decided to take this time and help Sonic keep Whitney down; the last thing they needed was to have the police come in!

"Keep 'er down!" Peridot commanded. "She can't leave here until we get th' will!"

"Get the cell phone! Crush it, anything!" Ron shouted.

"MY PRECIOUS! WHERE IS MY PRECIOUS? !"

"The lizard's on yer had, Blue..."

"Who's pulling my arm? !"

"Whoopsie! I thought you were Scourge."

"Ow! Someone hit me in my eye!"

"My bad."

"Something just bit my crotch!"

"Serves ya right ya ugly hag!" A dust cloud eventually developed during all of the wrestling and random grabbing. Whitney shouted insults and commands occasionally, but they were either ignored or silenced. It was hard to tell who had who, and where everyone was. The dust cloud obscured everything, except of the occasional arm, leg or sometimes a head that would pop out.

It was minutes into the chaos when two more people entered the kitchen, oblivious to what was going on at the moment.

"Hey guys! Look at what I-" The fighting stopped immediately and the dust cloud eventually withered away to nothing, revealing a heap of hedgehogs, spirits and a human. Whitney was on her back trying to push Peridot off, Peridot was pulling Whitney's hair, Shadow had Scourge leg, Scourge was pushing Emi away from him, Emi had Scourge's sunglasses, Evan and Eric were trying to pull Emi away from Scourge, Orok was biting Sonic's ear, Sonic was just about to stomp on Whitney's stomach, Ron was holding Sonic's wrist, and Petuni and Roxy were on the sidelines watching everyone else.

But now, everyone's eyes were glued on the new people, who were none other than Silver and Cobalt. Silver was looking at everyone with curious eyes while Cobalt held his hand, also looking at everyone. Silver had to blink a few times before he could actually comprehend what was going on.

"Um...did I miss something?" he asked. "What's going on here? Who's that lady? Who are these other people that look similar to Cobalt? Why is Sonic naked? Where did that little dragon come from? Why are you guys wrestling?"

"Where the hell were you?" Shadow exclaimed releasing Scourge's leg. Silver smiled before he looked down at Cobalt, who was hiding behind his legs.

"I was playing games with Cobalt!" he explained. "There's a game room upstairs! I heard her playing her trumpet, so I went in the room, and we introduced ourselves, and we started playing video games! We played Paper Mario, Mario Party, Luigi's Mansion, Mario Kart, Pokemon XD, Dance Dance Revolution, Wii Sports..."

"Silver's really good at video games!" Cobalt said cheerfully, now clutching both of Silver's hands.

"Cobalt!" Petuni exclaimed as she rushed over to the small girl and hugged her. "We were so worried about you! How come you didn't tell us where you were all this time? You were gone all night!"

"But you know I'm always in the game room..." Cobalt said while tilting her head a bit.

"What's that in yer hand there, son?" Peridot asked, eyeing the piece of paper in Silver's left hand. The silvery hedgehog looked at the paper before looking back at the group.

"Well, it's a will that I found in-"

"HE HAS THE THING!" Sonic randomly shouted, but this time he got a reaction to it other than face palms, weird looks or sighing.

"GET HIM!" Silver's pupils shrank when he saw the mob on the floor suddenly sprang up to rush him. Unfortunately, everyone ended up tripping over each other since they never really got out of the position they were in when Silver and Cobalt walked in.

Regardless, Silver took this as an opportunity to haul his ass out of there. Grabbing Cobalt's hand, he ran out of the kitchen, into the dining room and towards the other side of the foyer. Unfortunately, Sonic and Shadow must've gotten to their feet quick enough since they ran in front of Silver's path and blocked it. Silver turned to run upstairs, but Peridot, Scourge and Cal blocked his path again. Silver tried to front door this time, but now Whitney was standing in front of it. As a last resort, Silver tried to dining room again, but it was blocked by the remaining spirits. Now they were completely surrounded.

"Wh-wh-what's going on?" Silver asked, trying his best not to sound scared.

"Just give us the will, Silver," Shadow said, trying to sound as calm as he could.

"But tell me what's going on! What's up with you guys? What is this all about?"

"We're done talking!" Whitney yelled, her face now red with rage, and maybe excitement. "Just give me the damn thing so I can kick you all out!"

"But-"

"GIVE US THE WILL!" Everyone (except Cobalt, Petuni and Roxy) yelled simultaneously.

"N-no way!" Silver exclaimed, now clutching the piece of paper to his chest. All the while, no one noticed that the three remaining female spirits had left the room and went somewhere...

Scourge took a step towards Silver and held out his hand.

"Silver, don't make it harder than it already is," he warned. "Give it to me!"

"No, give it to me!" Whitney shouted, walking towards Silver.

"No, Silver, give it to me!" Shadow yelled.

"Give it Santa!" Sonic randomly shouted.

"Give it here, son!" Peridot yelled.

"No, let us have it!" Emi, Eric, Evan, Cal and Ron shouted.

"Give it to me!"

"Don't trust that bitch! Silver, yer my bro, right?"

"No, Silver, don't listen to Scourge!_ I'm_ your bro!"

"Silver...I AM YOUR FATHER!"

"Sonic, shut up will ya? !"

Give me that will you rat!"

"No, Silver, over here!"

"Silver give me the will, quickly!"

"Silver!"

"No, Silver, over here!"

"Over here son!"

"Silver, c'mon!"

"EEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAIIIIIIII!" Silver unintentionally activated his telekinesis and picked up the nearest object (which was that table at the beginning) and chucked it in a random direction. The table flew at full speed towards Sonic and Shadow, but their reflexes were sharp, so Sonic dodged while Shadow ducked. But the onslaught didn't stop there; Silver used his powers to pick up any object that was nearby and threw it in every direction.

"Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me AAAAALOOOOOOOOONE!" Swords, books, tables, chairs, Scourge (ha) and anything else went flying across the foyer. Scourge actually hit Sonic and Shadow this time, knocking them to the floor. The spirit Mobians were able to float in the air to avoid most of the onslaught, and Whitney resorted to just lying on the floor and hoped and prayed nothing sharp hit her.

"Now look what you did!" Shadow shouted, pointing directly at Whitney. Said woman could only frown at the ebony hedgehog.

"Me? You caused just as much damage as I did!"

"Regardless, we gotta calm the boy down!" Peridot shouted, dodging another chair.

"We'll have to go near him to do that!" Ron called.

"Good luck with that, Blue!" Scourge exclaimed before kicking the nude hedgehog towards the distressed silvery one. Sonic was just a few feet away from Silver, but he just stood there, somehow not getting hit by random flying objects. Even in his hyper state, he could still tell that Silver needed to calm down. And at that moment, something in his head snapped.

"Hey, Silver!" Sonic called. "I have some flavor blasted Goldfish!"

"You ate them you blue bastard!" Silver cried before throwing a book at Sonic, hitting him square in the crotch.

"MY BLUE BALLS!" Sonic cried as he fell to his knees, but then suddenly got to his feet and grinned. "Oh wait, that didn't hurt because my penis is in my stomach right now, so HA!" The onslaught of flying objects suddenly stopped and the floating objects fell to the ground as Silver's telekinesis wore off. Silver stared at Sonic before simply going "what?" while Sonic ran around him laughing triumphantly. The spirits floated down to the floor, and the others got back to their feet. However, Whitney, now seeing an opening, started to run over to Silver with an outstretched hand.

"NOW IT'S MINE!" she cried.

"FREEZE!" All movement stopped and everyone froze. Sonic, Shadow, Scourge and Silver turned to see three police officers (one was a human, the other two were Mobian German Shepperd's) standing in front of the door to the dining room with their pistols pointing directly at the group in the middle.

"Put your hands up now!" the human officer demanded.

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes: <strong>Oh dear, what's going to happen now? This is the last chapter before the finale people. Yeah, it's ending already.

You all know what's coming here, but I'll repeat myself anyway XD

I went through it and correct any spelling mistakes and grammar mishaps that I could find, but if I miss some, I apologize, and I'll go back to correct it if possible.

I am not forcing you to review, but they're nice, and I accept criticism. But there's a fine line between criticism and flaming to me, so be careful. And, if the only thing you're gonna do is flame this, don't even waste your time with posting a review at all, 'cause you'll keep about...what, 5 seconds of your life?

Also, that thing about a hedgehog's...ah, "thing" up there? Well, I looked it up to make sure, and yes, a hedgehog's penis is located near the stomach area. Just wanted to get that clear.

Now that I'm done with that...

Thanks for reading! See you next time, and God bless!


	10. 10

**Everything's Solved (Sorta)**

One would think that as soon as police officers got involved, that meant that someone opened their mouth and somebody was going to jail. The question was, _who_ was going and for _what reason_. However, this wasn't a problem for one certain hedgehog; since he had so many warrants out for his arrest, he was for sure that he was going straight to the slammer. But he wasn't going down without a fight.

However, there was no need for him to be alarmed. Just behind the officers, Cobalt, Petuni and Roxy walked out of the dining room, along with two more people. One of them was a tall handsome man with short black hair, and deep brown eyes. He wore a simple Mountain Dew t-shirt, jeans, and old Nike sneakers. Next to him was a girl who was in her teen years. Looked almost exactly like the man standing next to her, except her hair was longer and in pigtails, and she wore a short gold summer dress and brown sandals.

The man scowled at the group and murmured something to the human officer.

"The one right there?" he asked.

"Yes!" the other man exclaimed. The officer nodded and marched over to the group with the two Mobians with handcuffs ready. Silver shivered; his worst fear was coming to reality. There was no way he could survive in prison; he was too good to go! Scourge was getting increasingly nervous; with so many warrants out for him, he knew he was going to do a few years. Shadow was a bit edgy. He's never been to jail, but he was locked up on Prison Island in stasis for 50 years. He didn't want to go back there anymore...And Sonic...well, Sonic was too hyper to even give a damn.

The three officers walked over to the group; Silver was ready to get cuffed, Scourge tensed up just in case he needed to fight or run, Shadow tried to remain calm, and Sonic was cuddling Orok.

Only a few more paces until the officers were upon them...

4...

3...

2...

1...

"I'M SORRY!" Silver cried out, falling to his knees. "It wasn't my fault! They made me do it! I've never-"

"'Bout time we caught you!" Silver blinked before ht turned to see that the officers had walked straight past them and went straight to Whitney. One of the Mobian canines cuffed her, but the not-so-pretty woman began to struggle.

"Wh-what is the meaning of this? !" she demanded.

"You're under arrest for identity theft and fraud," the canine replied simply. "You've gotten away with this for three years, and I think it's time you got what you deserved." The hedgehogs (aside from Sonic) and spirits watched this scene with jaws opened.

"Um...what's this, then?" Silver asked.

"We called them," Roxy called, getting their attention. It was at that moment when the other man looked down at Petuni and smiled.

"Thank you so much for calling us, Petuni," he said. "You were lucky to had have caught us when we came back to the city."

"You're welcome Phil," Petuni replied cheerfully. "Things were getting out of control here."

"We'll take care of the rest, ma'am," the other canine said before he pushed Whitney towards the door. "Let's go, you!" Whitney growled something nasty under her breath before she was escorted out of the mansion, leaving only the others behind. When they left, the other man cleared his throat and approached the hedgehogs.

"So sorry for that," he said before extending his hand towards Shadow. "My name is Phillip Gordon Jr. I am the youngest of my father's children."

"It's a pleasure meeting you, sir," Shadow said while shaking the younger Phil's hand. The ebony hedgehog then gazed around the room and coughed nervously before stroking his quills. "And we apologize for the mess...things had gotten...hectic to say the least."

"It's fine!" Phil laughed. "I was just concerned about catching her before she did anymore damage."

"Junior," Peridot said quietly as he walked up to the man. "What's all this 'bout anyhoo? Why was Whitney arrested?"

"That wasn't Whitney," Phil replied, scowling deeply. "That was Jasmine. She stolen the original Whitney's birth certificate and tried to get the mansion for years now. See, the real Whitney Gordon died as a infant due to illness, and Dad couldn't let that go. So, he went out and adopted Jasmine from an orphanage to try and ease the pain. It was when Jasmine became an adult when she stolen Whitney's identity and posed as her for all of this time. She's been reported a few times, so she resorted to laying low here in the city to elude capture. Petuni contacted me a little while ago telling me what was going on here, and I arrived quickly because I was coming here to check on the mansion, among other things."

"How come we didn't know Whitney had died?" Cal asked.

"Phil knew how much you all wanted playmates, and he knew it would rip your hearts to pieces if he ever told you a child died. So he kept it a secret and went to go adopt Jasmine. As you all know, that didn't work out since she didn't like you all for whatever reason. So Phil had us to make you all feel better." Phil then turned towards the hedgehogs.

"I happen to be very close to the Spiritans."

"'Spiritans'?" Scourge repeated. Phil nodded.

"That's the name I made up for them when I was 12. You see, I was born with a weak immune system and was predicted to die within 3 years after birth. They knew this, and they were always by my side as I grew up. I was home schooled, so Peridot served as my personal tutor. Petuni cooked certain foods for me, and the children were my other brothers and sisters. Eventually, a medicine was made to help cure my illness, but it was in Shamar, and it also required a few months or a year of therapy, so I had to leave the city and go to Shamar. So that explains why I wasn't here. I just completed my treatment last month, and I made plans to come back and reclaim the house. However, we couldn't trust Jasmine, so I personally hid the will in a place she would never look."

"In the game room?" Silver asked.

"Exactly," Phil replied. "See, Jasmine doesn't like children, so she'll stay away form anything that was related to kids. Also, the game room was my favorite room when I played with Cobalt, so that's another reason why I hid it there." Petuni sighed as she folded her arms.

"I can't believe that woman," she said. "Taking the idenity of a dead child? Unforgivable!"

"Well, it's all over now," Shadow said. Silver looked down at his hand and saw that the will was still with him, so he turned towards Phil and presented it to him.

"I think this is yours," he said smiling.

"Thank you greatly," Phil said as he took the piece of paper, folded it and placed it in his pocket. "I'll need this if I am to get the house out of Jasmine's name. Oh! I almost forgot!" Phil then turned towards the girl who was still standing near the door, but was playing with Cobalt. He called her over, and the girl practically skipped over.

"How rude of me. I forgot to introduce you to my daughter! This is Augusta Gordon. Her birthday was last week. She's 14 now." Augusta bowed and smiled at all of them.

"Pleasure meeting all of you," she said cheerfully. Orok squealed before he ran over to Augusta and started to paw at her legs. The teen giggled before she picked up the young dragon and cuddled.

"That's mine!" Sonic whined. Phil looked over at Sonic and blinked.

"May I ask why Sonic the hedgehog is sitting on the floor nude?" he asked.

"Don't ask," everyone (except for Augusta, Orok and Phil of course) said at the same time. Shadow cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention again.

"Getting back to the main topic," he said "I would like to apologize on Scourge's behalf for-"

"Why me? !" Scourge demanded.

"Because you were the idiot who trespassed here in the first place!" Silver said smugly. Scourge mumbled something nasty.

"Anyway," Shadow continued "we apologize for trespassing, and will help pay for any damages caused here." Phil laughed heartily.

"There's no need! You guys helped us catch Jasmine! And you're heroes, after all. I should be the one paying you!"

"Phil," Ron asked, walking up to the man "what are you going to do with the mansion now?" Phil shrugged.

"I'm not sure," he said honestly. "This place is too big for just my family and even the Spiritans. Regardless, I'll figure out what we'll do with the place once we arrive in court." Phil then went into his pocket, pulled out a card and gave it to Shadow.

"Since you are friends with the Spiritans, then you are friends of our family. If there is anything you need at all, give us a call." Shadow nodded before he place the card in his own pocket.

"We'll help clean up," Silver offered. "I mean, I was the one who caused it...It's only fair..."

"Let's get started then," Peridot said before he stretched and yawned. "The faster we get this done, the faster I can take a well deserved nap..."

**. . .**

Silver kicked a stray can on the sidewalk as he, Scourge, Shadow and Sonic walked home. Sonic's sugar rush was finally calming down, and he was showing signs of fatigue. Orok, whom Phil allowed them to keep, was resting comfortably on the blue blur's shoulder as they walked. Shadow was quiet as they walked, and Scourge was sulking. It was after 8 in the morning; they've spent an entire night at the Gordon mansion. The sun was still rising, the sky was blue, and everyone in the city was getting ready for the day ahead.

"What do you think Phil will do with the house once he reclaims it?" Silver suddenly asked as they walked.

"Who knows," Sonic replied, and then groaned as he held his head. "Ohhh...my head..."

"Well, I believe he shouls keep it," Shadow said. "There's a lot of memories in that house, especially for the Spiritans. Phil should just move his family in there and repeat history. Augusta can get married, have kids of her own, and give them more playmates. Keep them happy, you know?"

"I hope Jasmine has fun in the slammer!" Scourge laughed.

"Wow, you're cruel," Silver said to himself before kicking another can into an alley they were passing. The can bounced off of a dumpster, startling a resident. Silver stopped walking and looked into the alley when he saw movement from behind the dumpster. He carefully walked into the alley, eyeing the area he believed he saw movement. He took another step, but now he could see something hiding on the side of the dumpster; it appeared to be a foot.

Frowning a bit, Silver walked around to dumpster, only to see about 3 or 4 young kids, probably by the ages of 6 or 7, sitting up against the brick wall. Three were human kids, and the one was a gray Mobian cat. They were very dirty, underweight, and looked to have been crying at some point. Silver's stomach twisted in knots upon seeing this; Silver, being a child at heart himself, had a very special spot in his heart for kids, especially those out on the streets. He deduced that these kids had been orphans for a long time by judging their clothes. Who knows when they had a bath, a good meal, or even someone to take care of them. He wondered if they even knew who their parents were...or if they even had parents, and what happened to them?

Silver knelt down in front of the kids and told them that he wasn't there to harm them. The human girl, who was clutching a ripped stuffed bunny, shuffled her feet a bit before looking up at him.

"Do you have any food Mister Hedgie?" she asked. Silver frowned as he shook his head, but it was at that moment when something in his head snapped.

"I don't have anything, but I know where you can get plenty of food, as well as other things," he said softly.

"You do?" the cat, who was male, asked as his eyes lit up. "Where?"

"Silver! Where are you?" Silver jumped when he heard Shadow call his name. He had forgotten he was traveling with his roommates. Silver told the children he would be back before he stood up and jogged towards the entrance. When there, he saw that Scourge, Shadow and Sonic were standing in front of it, waiting for him.

"What were you doing?" Shadow asked.

"Do you still have Phil's number?" the silvery one asked, completely ignoring the question. Shadow blinked before he took out the card and presented it to his silver counterpart.

"Yeah. But why?"

"I think I know what he should do with the mansion..."

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes: <strong>Only one chapter to go...

I'm not even going to write out my rules and such. I'm lazy today, and I think everyone's getting tired of seeing them in every chapter XP

The next chapter will be up later on today.


	11. Finale

**New Beginnings**

"C'mon, c'mon! We're already late! Let's hustle!" Silver exclaimed as he ran up the front way of the mansion. It had been a month ever since the four hedgehogs were locked in the mansion. They made new friends in the Spiritans, previous Mobians who died in a fire. Jasmine, an adoptive daughter of the Gordons who posed as a deceased child, tried to claim the mansion to sale it. But luckily, the hedgehogs meddled with her plans and were able to save the mansion.

Today, Phil had contacted Silver and told them to come up to visit since he had a surprise for them. Sonic jogged after Silver while Orok flew after Sonic (the little dragon learned how to fly), Shadow just walked quickly while Scourge just walked calmly. However, as they walked, everyone couldn't help but to notice some of the obvious changes at the mansion. First off, the hedgehogs noticed that there were a lot of toys scattered across the front yawn. Also, there were more flowers in the garden, and the bushes were in the shapes of animals like cats, dogs, and so on. However, the exterior of the mansion was the same.

It took them a few moments, but the four hedgehogs made it to the mansion. Silver was jumping with excitement, but the others (even Sonic) remained calm.

"Alright Silver, Shadow said "what's this big surprise you and Phil have for us?" Silver smirked.

"You'll see," was the only thing he said before he knocked on the doors three times. After a few moments, the locks could be heard getting undone from the other side before the door opened. Augusta greeted them, now wearing a pink summer dress and with her hair tied up. She smiled at the hedgehogs and moved aside so they could come in.

"You're just in time," she said. "Everyone assembled just a while ago."

"Everyone?" Sonic repeated curiously. Augusta closed the door behind them while the hedgehogs gazed at the new look of the interior design. The hardwood floors were now replaced with blue and purple polka-dotted carpeting. The weapons that hung from the walls were replaced with pictures and drawings, as well as the alphabet and pictures of animals and plants. The chandelier that hung from the ceiling was still there, but now it was silver, and it had zoo animals hanging from it. Scourge, Shadow and Sonic gaped at the new decorations, but Silver looked proud of himself.

At that moment, a group of children (both humans and Mobians) started to walk down the grand staircase. There were two children in front, and they looked very familiar to Silver. One of them was a human girl holding a stuffed bunny, and the boy next to her was a gray Mobian cat. The girl looked up to see the hedgehogs standing in the foyer, and she immediately smiled before she ran down the stairs, went up to Silver and hugged him. The Mobians cat soon followed her lead, and the other children followed. It wasn't long before all four were surrounded with small kids, ranging from the age of 4 to 9.

Silver was on the floor hugging multiple kids, Sonic had more hanging off of him while Orok got chased by a few, Shadow allowed a young Mobian fox to climb on his back, and Scourge was knocked to the floor.

Moments later, Phil Gordon Jr. along with the Spiritans came into the foyer and told the children to get off of their guests.

"I see you met the new residents," Phil chuckled once the hedgehogs were back on their feet.

"New residents?" Scourge asked.

"I arranged this," Silver said proudly. "Remember when we went home that day? Well, I saw some orphans hiding behind the dumpster."

"Silver called Phil and told him he should turn the mansion into another orphanage!" Petuni said lyrically. "When we heard this, we began to reconstruct the house." Shadow suddenly grew a wide smile before he patted Silver's back.

"You clever dog!" he exclaimed. "That was a great idea! How come you never told us?"

"I wanted it to be a surprise." Silver replied coolly. The girl with the stuffed bunny started to pull at Silver's pants leg.

"Mister Silver!" she said. "We have something to tell you!"

"What's that?" The children giggled before they all stood in front of the hedgehogs, bowed, and said "thank you" simultaneously.

"Aw shucks..." the silvery hedgehog said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. "It was nothing!"

"Wrong Silver," Sonic said. "What you did means something to these kids, and the Spiritans. You gave them a family, playmates, and you were the main person who saved the place! You saved the future generation, man."

"You've just gave these kids what they've been missing," Shadow added. "They were out on the streets without a future, destined for a world of cruelty, loneliness, or even death. You probably just saved a lot of lives."

"There are more kids coming in here everyday," Agusta said. "And since the mansion is so big, we have plenty of room!"

"And hey, I ain't the one to say this, but you gotta be proud of yourself, Silv," Scourge said. "Hell, the place should be name after ya!"

"It is," Ron laughed. "Agusta was the one who thought of it. We're calling this place the 'House of Silver'."

"Y'all welcome to come here anytime ya want," Peridot added. "Th' kids would like to play with y'all when yer not busy. 'Sides, I think new arrivals would love to meet th' ones who saved 'em in th' first place."

"Yeah! Stay and play with us Mister Hedgehogs!" a young Mobian kangaroo exclaimed. Soon, the entire foyer was filled with the whining and begging of the children who wanted to have their special guests stay a while. Silver laughed a bit before he turned towards his roommates.

"Well? Should we stay?" he asked.

"I don't see why not," Shadow said while smiling.

"Yeah," Sonic added. "I wanna see what else they changed here!"

"I'm not busy." Scourge said simply. The kids cheered before a few of them grabbed the hedgehogs and pulled them towards the staircase. They eventually were broke up into groups; Silver went up to the game room with Cobalt, Ron and Evan, Sonic and Shadow were in the library. Shadow read stories to the kids with Peridot and Petuni while Sonic told his tales of adventure. And Scourge was showing off his skills by performing various tricks with billiards and other objects he could find while Emi, Eric, and Cal watched. The four of them stayed at the mansion that whole day, entertaining the kids until the sun began to set. It was around 6 that evening when they had to bid farewell.

"Please come back over to visit," Petuni said at the front door. "The children loved your company."

"We will!" Silver exclaimed. "That's a promise!" At that moment, Cobalt pushed her way through the group, holding her platinum trumpet. Silver smiled and knelt down so he could at eye level with his young friend.

"Hi there, Cobalt!" he said happily. "What'cha got there?"

"This is for you!" Cobalt said cheerfully as she presented Silver with the toy.

"Your trumpet?" Silver looked down at the toy, and then back at Cobalt before shaking his head. "I can't. It's your toy!"

"But I want you to keep it!" Cobalt pressed the trumpet into Silver's chest and smiled. "I'm giving it to you because I trust you, and your my best friend. I know you'll take good care of it, so take it!" Silver looked down at the toy instrument and began to think back to when he first met Cobalt. He was so nervous when he was walking down that dark hallway. And then, as if she was calling out to him, he heard Cobalt playing the Forest Maze song from one of his favorite video games. He went into that room and saw a small girl looking for a friend. He'll never forget the day he met Cobalt, and he was sure Cobalt would never forget the day she met him. Smiling softly, Silver placed the trumpet on the floor before embracing the small Spiritan girl in a tight hug.

"Thanks, Cobalt," he said softly. "But I wish I could give you something in return..."

"You already gave me something silly!" Cobalt giggled, making Silver tilt his head a little. "You gave me a friend in you once we met. That's the best thing you could ever give to me." The females let out "aww"s while Scourge gagged, earning him a slap on the head Sonic, Shadow and even Orok.

"Hey, Scourge." Cal suddenly came form the group, holding a box that seemed all too familiar to Scourge. "I want you to have these."

"Whoa, you're giving me the-you're giving_ them_ to me?" Scourge asked. Cal nodded. Before presented the box to him.

"They're now yours, dude."

"But...I can't..."

"I want you to have them, Scourge. Besides..." Cal motioned for Scourge to come closer before he whispered in his ear. "'Sides, I can't keep them here with all of these kids around. Imagine what would happen if they found 'em!"

"Point taken." Scourge chuckled before taking the box in his hands and grinning.

"Well," Sonic sighed "we better head on home."

"It's was great having you all over," Phil said. "As we said before, you're welcome to visit anytime you like."

"We'll be back," Shadow promised. "We know that the kids would want to see us occasionally." Silver rubbed Cobalt's head before he stood up.

"Be good, and listen to what your parents say, alright?" Cobalt giggled again before nodding. After a few more farewells, the four hedgehogs began to make their way down the large front yard of the new orphanage. As they walked, the children of the orphanage opened the windows on the second and third floors and said their farewells. The hedgehogs turned around and waved goodbye as they continued walking. Soon, they were out the gate, and were on their way back home. When they were gone, Phil, Augusta, Peridot, Petuni and the others soon went inside and closed the door, and went back to the start of their new lives.

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes: <strong>It came and went so fast, didn't it? Yup, it's over guys.

You know what? I think I'm going to do more short stories featuring these four only, and maybe having small appearances of other characters.

I'm not going to say the usual today; I'm too tired. Anyway...

I hope you enjoyed the story! See you next time, and God bless!


	12. Bonus

**Author's Note:** Surprise!

* * *

><p><strong>Bonus Chapter!<strong>

The smell of grilled hotdogs and burgers filled the air as Shadow flipped another patty. A week had passed ever since the Silver House was founded. It was the day after the founding that the hedgehogs had to go up to the mansion again for a news interview. A week had past since then, and even now, the four of them were still trying to cope with one another.

Today, however, was not one of those days. To celebrate their latest victory, they decided to have a little barbecue in the backyard of their complex. Shadow was busy at the grill, Sonic was sun bathing in a lawn chair with Orok napping on a pillow next to him, Scourge was reading one of the dirty magazines his Spiritan Cal gave to him while smoking another cigarette near the pool (but he used an old comic book to cover the front to make it look like he was reading the comic instead), and Silver left a little while ago to fetch the mail.

Moments later, Silver stepped outside, wearing nothing but sandals and tan shorts while shuffling through a few envelopes. Shadow was the first one to notice his return, and decided to acknowledge his presence.

"Hey, Silver," he called "you want a burger or a hotdog?"

"Hotdog," Silver replied before pulling out a certain envelope. "Hey, look! Phil sent us something in the mail!"

"Oh yeah?" Scourge said, looking up from his dirty magazine. "What is it?" Silver used his claws to open the envelope before pulling out a rectangular piece of paper from it. After looking at it for a few moments, Silver suddenly gasped and began to jump up and down.

"I don't believe it!" he exclaimed. "Phil sent us a check as a reward for helping him save the mansion! The check is for 50,000 Rings!" Scourge, Shadow and Sonic immediately ran over to Silver and pushed each other to get a look at the check.

"Whoa!"

"I don't believe it!"

"Sweet!"

"We should go cash it in," Shadow said eagerly. "We can finally get rid of this place and get houses for our own!" Silver made a slight face at Shadow as he clutched the check tighter.

"B-but I already made plans to give it to charity!" Silver protested.

"Screw that!" Scourge exclaimed. "I need some of that money to pay off my tickets!"

"But Orok needs supplies!" Sonic whined as he held up said baby dragon. "He needs a bed, food and toys! We can't have him chew up the couch again!"

"Look," Shadow sighed, growing impatient "we'll split the money. We each get 10,000 and the rest can go in the bank. We'll do whatever we want with each of our share, deal?"

"Fine..."

"Sounds fair..."

"Alright, but I'm cashin' it first!" Scourge then grabbed the check and attempted to snatch it form Silver, but Silver had a firm grip, and he immediately withdrew.

"No way! You can't be trusted!" Silver cried while trying to pull the check away from the green menace.

"Gimme!" Sonic cried before grabbing a free of of the check and started to pull at it also. "I can get the money faster!" Shadow then grabbed the last free area of the check and began to pull at it.

"Release it!" Shadow demanded. "You're all too immature to do this! Give it to me!"

"Leggo Stripes!"

"I need to get Orok a scratching post!"

"The charity!"

"My rent money!"

"Orok's supply money!"

"My ticket money!"

"Uh, guys? I think we should-"

_RRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIP!_

It was the most agonizing sound the four of them could hear as their check ripped apart into four separate segments that each of them still held on to. There was a stunned silence before Scourge fell to his knees and began to cry pitifully.

"It's gone!" he sobbed. "Now I'll never get the police offa my ass!"

"There goes my dream of a house of my own!" Shadow mumbled as he crumbled up his segment.

"Aw crud," Sonic groaned before he looked down at his reptilian friend, who was at his feet looking up at him. "Sorry buddy. I guess we can't get that pet bed for you after all."

"Aww...now I can't donate to the charity I picked," Silver whined before he picked up the envelope. "Oh well...I better tell Phil what happened."

"You think he'll send us another one?" Scourge asked hopefully.

"Doubt it," Silver laughed before he went into the house the throw away what used to be a check full of money. As he entered the house, Silver began to hear a argument breaking out between the remaining three. He knew that they were blaming each other for ripping the check, and Silver chuckled as he shook his head.

"Can't live with them, and can't without them," he said to himself as he walked into the kitchen. He went over to the garbage can and started to throw the envelope, along with his ripped segment, away into the trash, but then something caught his eye...Opening the envelope again, he saw another piece of rectangular paper that was exactly like the check before; had the same amount of Rings, Phil's signature and everything. Along with the check was a sticky note attached to it. Silver took the note and read it to himself.

_"Just a spare just in case anything happened to the first one._

_Spend wisely my friends!_

_-Phillip Gordon Jr."_

Silver smiled to himself as he read the note, and looked back at the check. He could go tell the others that Phil was nice enough to give them a spare check, but then he changed his mind. That would only repeat what had happened before, and he definitely didn't want to lose the spare! So, Silver folded the check in half and placed it in his pocket.

"I'll tell them once the money is safely deposited in the bank," he said to himself before he threw the envelope away, and then went back outside to maybe try and stop the bickering that was taking place in the backyard.


End file.
